Jaune Arc, Errant Questor
by Nerdlydelicious
Summary: When Jaune Oathblade, Errant Questor of the Hallowed Knights and defender of the innocent, is cast out of the realms he has known all his life and into a strange world of unusual technology and magic, he sets out to find a way back home. But it quickly becomes apparent that not all is well in this 'Remnant'. Chaos lurks even here, and it may be that Jaune was sent for a purpose...
1. Chapter 1

**HELLOOOOOOO EVERYONE! Some of you may be looking at this and wondering, "what the hell is a Stormcast, or an Errant Questor?" For those of you unfamiliar with Age of Sigmar I will give as brief description of AOS as I can while still giving you enough info so you'll have a working grasp of the universe of AOS and some of the terms I'll be using throughout this story. At the end of each chapter I will leave a glossary of Age of Sigmar terms I used for you RWBY fans who are interested in having a deeper understanding of the AOSverse. Don't worry however, most if not all of this story is going to take place in the RWBYverse, so I won't be flinging y'all into the deep end here.**

 **In the world of AOS reality is split into eight realms, each of which represent a certain kind of magic. Each realm was ruled by a god of the Pantheon of Order. Head of this pantheon and god of the realm of Heaven, Azyr, was Sigmar (think a combination of Odin and Zeus, just less of a jerk. That's Sigmar.)**

 **Things were going pretty well in the eight realms, until the four gods (read: asshats) of Chaos attacked and their worshipers overran seven of the eight realms despite the best efforts on the part of Sigmar and the other gods. Eventually the other gods were lost, the pantheon was broken, and seven of the eight realms were totally subjugated by Chaos. The only realm to escape the conquest was Azyr. With no other options left to him Sigmar closed off his realm from the others, dooming the inhabitants of the other realms to their fate.**

 **Stricken with grief but determined, Sigmar labored for centuries to find a way to free the realms from the rule of Chaos. Eventually he found it.**

 **Sigmar created the Stormcast Eternals: men and women who had fought against Chaos in their former lives and who had been chosen to be reforged and filled with the might of Sigmar himself. Reforged and clad in armor of a magical metal called Sigmarite, the Stormcast Eternals marched to war to liberate the realms from the yoke of the Chaos gods.**

 **These men and women cannot truly die, barring extremely rare circumstances. When they fall in battle they are returned to Azyr and their souls are reforged again, but every time they are reforged something about that Stormcast changes. Most of the time they lose memories or some of their personality, becoming both less and more human with each reforging. Some are blessed with increased might and power or other gifts, but these are few and far between, and most are simply changed. No one knows how to truly correct the process, but it can be assumed that there must be some way to cure the side effects of being Reforged. Nevertheless the Stormcasts continue to fight on against Chaos to protect the realms and the people within them.**

 **And with all that out of the way... ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Most people would have found shelter when the rain came.

Most people would have sought protection from the bolts of lighting that flashed down from the storm choked heavens.

Jaune Oathblade was not most people.

In Chamon, the realm of metal, Jaune Oathblade knelt upon a bare hillside with his face upturned as fat droplets of pure water poured down and bolts of lighting flashed down from the sky. He was bare of any garments or armor from the waist up. His blonde hair, which was braided and ran down past his shoulders, and his thick beard were both soaked with rain water. His lips moved as he whispered old litanies, prayers, and songs devoted to Sigmar, God-King of Azyr and rightful lord of all eight of the realms that had not been sung in the other seven realms ever since the gates to Azyr had closed. He cupped his hands over his head as the rain poured until they were full, then brought his water filled hands to his lips and drank deeply, sighing contently as the water refreshed him

Most people would have sought shelter from rain and lightning.

Most people were not Stormcast Eternals.

The deluge ended, and the clouds began to part and the sun broke through. The water upon his large and chiseled body evaporated away within seconds, but it was not due to the sun. The lightning that coursed within his veins heated his skin to a point that anyone near him would have been able to feel it emanating from him.

Eyes the color of sapphire and flashing with lightning within opened as Jaune stood and stretched, the powerful muscles of his back rippling under his skin. He stood to his full nine foot height and began replacing his armor upon himself.

His plates of Sigmarite were gold and silver and his warcloak that hung down from his shoulders was a regal blue. The metal gleamed even in the low light of those rays of sun that peered through the clouds, and his warcloak shimmered as though it held stars within it.

Jaune Oathblade was a warrior of the Hallowed Knights Stormhost. Each member of this defiant Storm Host had been faithful worshipers of Sigmar, and after their reforging their faith in Him had only grown. They were Sigmar's holy warrior's, whose duty it was to defend the faithful in the realms and drive back the foul servants of the Dark Gods. Such was their faith that their battle cry was "only the faithful!" For many of the followers of Chaos this battle cry had been the last thing they'd heard before their demise.

Jaune was an Errant Questor, a Stormcast Eternal who was on a lone quest, whose purpose only the Errant Questor and Sigmar himself knew. In Jaune's case his quest was a simple one: vengeance, liberation, and atonement. The Ruinous Powers had twice taken all that he had cared for and continued to subjugate the innocent of the lands. With rune etched greatblade and the fury of lightning in his veins the Errant Questor would bring ruin to the foes of Sigmar, to the chain bearers and the soul breakers. All those he had liberated had seen his righteous fury against their oppressors and known that Sigmar had not abandoned them, that the Lord of Heaven and Storms had not forgotten the denizens of the other realms.

As Oathblade replaced his helmet upon his head and closed his visor he turned and marched down the hill to a village of one such denizens.

* * *

Elder Namaria took his armored hand in both of her gnarled ones. Her hands were child sized compared to his. "Thank you golden man," she said sincerely, "you good man. Good man."

Jaune smiled, his helmet hanging from his waist, and gently placed his other hand over hers. "You honor me lady," he responded, "but you must hurry away. The foe grows nearer, and you all must be as far away as possible when they arrive."

As the elder was helped away by her daughter Jaune felt a tug on his cape. He turned and looked down to see young Oscar staring up at him. The boy was only fourteen, but he had a brave heart worthy of a Stormcast. "You can't mean to stay and fight them all on your own," Oscar pleaded with him. "You'll die!"

The Knight Questor smiled kindly and placed his hand on Oscar's shoulder. "Such is my place in life young one. Sigmar granted me this power. His only demand was that I use it to defend the the defenseless against the forces of Chaos. Always remember Oscar, much is demanded..."

"Of those to who much is given," the boy finished with his head bowed. "But you could still come with us," he said weakly as he looked up, his hazel eyes meeting Jaune's sapphire ones. "You could protect us on the journey to the realm gate."

The Stormcast shook his head. "Even now the foe comes to slaughter and enslave you and your loved ones. I must remain behind to buy you time until the Vanguard Hunters find you. Fear not for me, for when I fall I will be returned to the Sigmarbulum and reforged to continue my fight. I will fall here, but this will not be the end of my tale." He smiled again. "You will see me again Oscar, I swear it." Gently but firmly Oathblade guided Oscar to the train of people leaving the village with everything they could carry on their backs or on horse drawn carriages. "Go, Oscar. They will need your courage in the days to come. Leave the sacrifices to those who will survive them."

As the last person left the village wailing horns echoed from the north. The Knight Questor pulled on his helmet and slammed down the face plate. His body sealed in blessed Sigmarite, Oathblade drew his greatblade and slammed it blade first into the soft copper of the massive metal plate the village was situated on. He rested his hands upon the pommel of his blade, and waited for the foe.

* * *

They came in a horde hundreds strong.

Clad in armor of brass and steel, coated in gore and gnashing their teeth in fury, the servants of Khorne, the god of murder and slaughter, swarmed like locusts towards the little village. At their head was a man as tall as Jaune and clad in blood red armor. In one hand he clutched a massive axe that eternally dripped blood. In the other he held a flayed skull dripping with blood and with bits of ragged flesh still hanging from it. He stopped several meters from Jaune. His warriors tried to charge past him, but he cut one open from skull to groin and forced the others to remain behind him. His gaggle of murderers sufficiently cowed the warrior of Khorne turned back to the Errant Questor.

"Golden man!" He roared, "I am Hagavard Kaul, warlord of this land by the blessing of the blood god! The lives of all the people here are mine to do what I wish with! You tried to take my slaves away! I will slaughter you and offer your head up to my god for your transgression! Then I will hunt those cowards down and drown the land in their blood!" His fists clenched, and the skull shattered into pieces.

"Then face me," Jaune said. "Fight me in single combat, and we'll see just how valid your _god's_ claim is." He drew his sword from the copper and slammed the pommel against his breastplate. The sound of sigmarite on sigmarite rang through the village like the clear toll of a church bell, and thunder rumbled angrily overhead, as though the heavens overhead shared his hate for the servants of Chaos.

Hagavard gripped his axe in both hands and charged towards Jaune howling madly. Oathblade planted his feet, and waited.

When the axe came down the Stormcast's Sigmarite sword came up and met it. The brass bound axe blade rebounded off of the the blade. Jaune was not even budged. Hagavard stumbled back, his eyes wide with shock. Never before had he met a foe who could take a blow from his axe directly and survive. "Is that the best you have?" Jaune scoffed. "Is this the best a warrior of the _mighty_ Khorne can muster? Pathetic."

Hagavard's frame trembled with rage and froth bubbled up between his lips as he flung himself at Jaune with a mad howl of unbridled fury. This time when his axe came down the Stormcast stepped to the side, and the blade sunk deep into the soft brass and was caught there. Hagavard yanked on his weapon in a desperate attempt to free it. Jaune swung his blade down and cut through the neck of the warlord and the haft of his axe in one fell blow. As the body collapsed to the ground still clutching the broken shaft of its weapon and the head rolled across the copper plate Jaune turned to the horde of stunned Khorne worshipers.

Jaune leveled his bloodied blade at them. "Who's next for the chopping block?"

The Blood Reavers surged towards him screaming profane worship to their god.

The first two fell with a single swing of the Knight Questor's sword. The third caught Jaune's fist in his jaw and his face collapsed around it. The fourth lost an arm, the fifth his head, and the sixth was struck with such force that the top half of his corpse sailed over the Blood Reavers before hitting the ground.

Jaune was a blur of Sigmarite and death. where his sword struck Khorne Worshippers died, while his own armor held against their blows and rebuffed them. Within the first minute over a dozen Blood Reavers were dead. Within the next five fifty more joined that tally.

Still they came.

Jaune's armor was mighty, but it was not impervious. As blows rained down his armor began to dent and give. Axes bashed his armor and dented or even pierced it. Daggers found gaps and jabbed into them. The lightning fueled blood of the Knight-Questor leaked from these wounds and burned through the gore already caking his armor. With each wound he received Jaune returned with a strike that claimed a life. The pain they inflicted on him was great. The rage burning in his soul was greater still.

By luck or design an axe blade caught him in the side of his head with enough force to send his helmet sailing off. He staggered and fell to one knee, temporarily stunned, and the jackals closed in for the kill.

He looked up, locked eyes with them, and they stopped in their tracks.

Jaune Oathblade stood at his full height, his blade in hand. With the emotionless war mask of his helmet gone the Stormcast's face was bare for the Blood Reavers to see. It should have emboldened the warriors of Khorne to see that their foe was but a man and not some autonomous construct.

It didn't.

Oathblade's face was twisted in fury, his eyes glowing with aetherial power and static sparks dancing around his teeth which were bared in a furious snarl. A halo of crackling energy seemed to form over his head, and his golden hair and beard were littered with sparks swirling within them. Overhead lightning flashed and thunder roared angrily, and this time the Blood Reavers had no doubt that the very heavens were against them.

The Stormcast hefted his blade in both hands. He took a step forward.

The Blood Reavers took two steps back, now faced with a foe whose fury greatly outmatched theirs.

Jaune burst forward with blade held high and roared his devotion with such force and fury that it drowned out the thunder.

"ONLY THE FAITHFUL!"

He slammed into them with such force that the first few were sent flying. He hewed, hacked, and stabbed all around him, slaughtering the followers of Khorne with wild abandon. As he killed Jaune chanted the name of his holy Liege over and over. "SIGMAR! SIGMAR! SIGMAR!"

And the Blood Reavers began to lose heart. They began to back away, at first in ones and twos, then in larger groups, until those that survived were fleeing for their lives, howling for their uncaring blood god to save them from the golden warrior.

"You will not escape my vengeance," the Stormcast swore as he raised his blade in both hands, the edge aimed down at the copper plate below. Lighting crackled along the length of his weapon, and he drove it into the soft, conductive metal.

Lighting raced through the metal towards the fleeing murderers. They howled as their bodies trembled uncontrollably and smoked poured out of their screaming maws. They collapsed in heaps of scorched bodies, smoke pouring out of open mouths and eye sockets. Not one had escaped the Oathblade's vengeance, just as he had sworn.

With a sigh Jaune sagged to his knees, his hands still clasped around the hilt of his blade. Blood poured out of dozens of wounds, and the Stormcast knew it would not be long before he was returned to the soul forges to be reforged to continue the war against the forces of Chaos. It was not the first time he had been reforged. He could feel himself changing with each Reforging, becoming more in tune with the lightning surging within his veins, more viscous and reckless in battle. When he was at his most furious lightning cracked forth from his body to strike down those foes near him that his blade had not yet reached. It was this trait that had given Jaune his second moniker: The Storm Soul.

"Sigmar!" he cried out, "know that I am your loyal servant to the end! Know that I will forever fight to bring salvation to the realms and your oppressed children!" His eyes snapped open, twin sapphires glowing with power. He held his hands over his head up to the storm wracked heavens above. "Sigmar! Reclaim me! I am ready to face the consequences of death! I would give away all of my soul and replace it with your power if it meant saving the realms! You demand much of those to who you give much, and I will pay this dear price gladly to liberate the oppressed and atone for my mistakes!"

The skies above rumbled and glowed with lighting. Jaune grasped his sword in one hand and wrenched it out of the metal, holding it above his head. "Sigmar! I will take your war to all of the realms and beyond! I would march into the heart of the realm of the dark gods themselves if you demanded it! No matter where I go, no matter what I face, I am your loyal warrior!"

With a tremendous crack of thunder a bolt of lightning streaked down and struck the Stormcast.

 _"Let the war against Chaos continue,"_ Oathblade thought as he was carried to the Sigmarbulum.

* * *

With a gasp Jaune sat up and winced as his head throbbed painfully. "Sigmar's hammer," he groaned as he gripped his head. His vision swam and he blinked until it was clear enough for him to make out his surroundings. "This... isn't the Sigmarbulum."

He was in a dense forest. Lush green trees surrounded him on all sides. The sounds of forest animals echoed through the air. Beams of sunlight lanced down through the canopy and illuminated his surroundings. "Am... I in Ghyran?"

The forest was certainly vibrant enough to belong to the realm of life, but Jaune had been to that realm before on quests. The whole of the land was choked by Nurgle's rot, the plague god's pestilences drowning the purity of Allarielle's realm in a tide of filth. However he had heard rumors from other Stormcast of hidden groves that were free of Nurgle's taint. Perhaps this was one of them?

Jaune gasped and clutched his head as another wave of pain hit him. His body felt... weak, unusually so. He tried to stand but stumbled and fell back to his knees. "What's happened to me?" Through bleary eyes Jaune saw a clear puddle on the ground. He tried to stand, failed again, and crawled over to the puddle. When he peered within it breath left his body. "By Ghal Maraz, _no_..."

He was... _changed_. Gone was the glow of power in his eyes, gone was his physical might and stature. Gone were his plates of Sigmarite. Even his hair was different.

He was a boy on the cusp of manhood. His body was scrawny and lacking in muscle. His face was clean shaven and his hair was short. His armor was gone and instead he was garbed in a strange garments of material he didn't recognize. Across his back was a greatblade and to his side was strapped a storm gladius, both of which provided some small comfort, but...

"Sigmar's oath, _what's happened to me_?!"

Behind him, Jaune heard a rustle in the bushes. He turned, his hand reaching for the hilt of his greatblade. Before him he saw a woman. She was armed, but the weapons were not raised in a threatening manner, and judging by the look on her face she was just as shocked to see him here as Jaune was at being here.

He did not know what had happened to him, or even where he was, so Jaune decided to take a chance. "Who... who are you? Where am I?"

* * *

 **And that's a wrap on chapter one! Don't worry folks, chapter two is already well underway. Anyone who can figure out where Jaune is or what's going to happen in chapter two gets a cookie! An imaginary cookie, that is... I ate the real ones...**

 **And for anyone who is a fan of my other story, "Jaune Arc, Gryphon Knight" and thinking to yourself, "wait a minute! Nerdlydelicious hasn't updated JAGK in months, but he's uploaded a new story. Does this mean Gryphon Knight is dead?!"**

 **No it does not friends. If anything it means that Gryphon Knight has a better chance of being updated sometime soon because I am kicking my creative juices back into gear. I have also recently gotten a stable full time job that has set hours, which means no more working super early or super late, so I can devote some more time to my stories. I really love Gryphon Knight, and I want to get it rolling again. By the time of this writing the next chapter is half done...ish. It's hard to tell. I want to get a lot into this chapter since it's effectively the opening of the next arc of the story and I need to get some plot threads rolling. Don't worry my peeps, it will come. Good things come to those who wait :)**

 **In my experience however good things also happen to those who go out and make them happen, soooo maybe not the best advice? Anyway, let's get on to the glossary of terms.**

 **GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:**

 **Chamon: Chamon is one of the eight magical realms that make up the universe of Age of Sigmar. The realm consists mostly if not entirely of metal, to the point that even much of the wildlife has at least some metallic features.**

 **Sigmar: god of Azyr and leader of the now destroyed pantheon of order. Sigmar's ultimate goal is to free the realms from Chaos at any cost, for he has seen what destruction the forces of the dark gods can wreak upon the land...**

 **Azyr: The realm of heaven, which Sigmar himself rules. It is the only one of the eight realms that escaped the depredations of the Chaos gods, and the mightiest bastion of Order in the eight realms.**

 **Stormcast Eternals: as mentioned before, the Stormcast are men and women who were chosen by Sigmar to be reforged into the ultimate warriors of Order. Their duty is to push the front forward and drive Chaos back. However they are still human, and they have their own dreams and wishes, and doubts too.**

 **Errant Questor: Errant Questors are Stormcast who have been chosen for a task that is unknown to any save themselves and Sigmar, and perhaps not even themselves. Some may desire vengeance against an enemy, while others may have a vision of themselves slaying a great monster. Regardless, Errant Questors are understood to have received Sigmar's blessing in pursuing whatever quest they have been given, and are released from their other duties until their task is complete.**

 **Sigmarbulum: The capitol of Sigmar's realm, the Sigmarbulum is where the Stormcast are reforged and re-armed for war.**

 **If you like this story so far then feel free to follow and favorite it! If you have a friend who likes RWBY, RWBY fanfics, Age of Sigmar, or you simply think they would enjoy this, then feel free to recommend this story to them! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions then feel free to leave a comment or PM me! If you have any questions about the universe of Age of Sigmar or want me to clarify something I mentioned then feel free to PM me! I love Age of Sigmar and RWBY, and I love talking about them both, so I will answer any questions you have! I love you all. BYYYYYYEEEE!**

 **P.S. Want to send a buck or two my way? Use this link!:** **https:(slash)(slash) .com(slash)user?u=4652041 if it doesn't work for whatever reason then please let me know.**


	2. Chapter 2

**HEEEEELLOOOOOO!**

 **I'm glad to see that so far this story has gotten some good reception! With only one chapter this story has over fifty follows and over thirty favorites. Not bad for a crossover fic that is crossed over with Warhammer, what one may consider to be a "niche" section of crossovers. Especially since it's Age of Sigmar.**

 **I would like to say going in that when possible I will try to explain any Age of Sigmar terminology in the story itself when possible, so long as it doesn't break the flow of the story. The point of the glossary is to provide extra info for anyone interested, and to allow me to explain any terms I didn't get a chance to really talk about in the story beyond just mentioning them.**

 **In this chapter things begin to really get interesting. Who was that mysterious woman Jaune saw? Where is he? Will she help him, or leave him? All that and more we shall discover... well, now, actually.**

* * *

"You're worried. Don't be."

The two people in question looked up at her sheepishly. "Apologies," the first, a girl, said, "it's just... to head straight to Beacon. It's risky." Her eyes widened as she realized exactly what she'd just said, and to who she'd said it to. "Though I'm sure you've already taken everything into consideration," she added hastily.

The other, a boy, shrugged. "Never thought I'd agree with _her_ ," he jabbed a thumb at the girl who growled at him in response, and continued, "but this is... well, risky. If we get found out..."

Cinder Fall kept her smile on her face. While normally she would have never put up with being questioned by underlings she'd make an exception this time. Emerald and Mercury were right of course, it _was_ risky for them to go to Beacon so early, but in this case the reward was worth the risk.

The unwilling addition of Lionheart to their little cadre had opened up a great many new doors for Cinder. Before she would have never tried to take the risk of entering the school via initiation, but Lionheart had been able to provide airtight forged transcripts for the three of them, and if a flaw was somehow detected in them they had already created a story for Lionheart to tell Ozpin. The sooner she could find the location of the Fall Maiden and claim the rest of the power that was rightfully hers, the better. By coming to Beacon several months before she had originally planned to, via the transfer students, she had whole months with which to locate Amber before the Vytal festival.

"So long as we make sure we do not stand out and remain cautious in our search, we won't be found out. The additional time we now have allows us to act more cautiously, and gives us more time to react to anything unexpected. So long as we remain calm we will be fine." Cinder's amber eyes slid over to the fourth and final member of their team. "And, of course, so long as we stick to the plan."

Neo, dressed in her normal, brightly colored attire, smiled innocently at Cinder and nodded as if to say, "of course I will," which only made Cinder all the more suspicious. Though Roman had gone to great lengths to ensure no one knew of Neo's existence to keep her as his secret weapon, it didn't hurt to have the girl dress differently to keep herself hidden in case someone _did_ discover her existence. In that regard Neo's semblance was very useful.

Of course Cinder didn't truly trust Neo. She and Roman were her allies only because Cinder had not given them a choice in the matter. They would turn on her if the chance arose, but for now the onyx haired woman held their lives in her hands. For all their faults the two were deathly loyal to one another. One would not run without the other, a fact which would be their undoing. As soon as their usefulness was expended, Cinder would dispose of them.

But for now they were useful, so for now they got to live.

* * *

Cinder forced herself to listen as Headmaster Ozpin explained how initiation would work. Naturally she already knew what their test would be, how teams were formed, what the relics were, and their location thanks to Lionheart, but it was possible the doddering fool could have missed a vital piece of information.

Though as Ozpin droned on it became obvious there was nothing new for Cinder to hear. More than a few prospective students became visibly worried when Ozpin explained that the system for buildings teams would be based on eye contact. Others met the eyes of old friends and nodded imperceptibly. Cinder and her underlings were in the latter camp. They already knew how team creation would work. Two people who made eye contact would become partners for the rest of their education at Beacon. Pairs of partners would be grouped together into a team of four based on what relics they collected. The whole thing sounded frankly ludicrous to Cinder. Why would Ozpin create such a randomized team building system? It left far too much chance in the equation, increasing the likliehood of a team with poor synergy.

However such a system worked in Cinder's favor. They had poured over maps of the Emerald Forest to determine what spot would be best to meet up at to ensure the four of them wound up on the same team. Emerald and Mercury would be one pair, while Cinder and Neo would be another pair. From there they would make their way to the ruins as quickly as possible and grab the first chess pieces that were of the same set, ensuring they would be a team. If one pair screwed up and wound up with different partners it would be nothing short of disastrous. Cinder has made sure to drive this point home _very_ thoroughly with the others. Mistakes would not be tolerated. If somehow one of them wound up with a partner other than one of the four of them then measures would have to be taken to fix the error, measures that undoubtedly would draw attention upon them.

The first pad activated and the first student was launched. Cinder tracked their flight path until she was satisfied that they would land nowhere near the chosen meeting spot of herself and Neo, or Emerald and Mercury. They had chosen spots that were closer to the cliff edge since most initiates would seek to get as far into the forest as possible in search for the ruins.

Student after student was launched into the forest, until finally the line reached Cinder. She gracefully ascended through the air, her eyes picking out the exact spot that she intended to land in. She glided through the air and her twin swords appeared in her hands. The hot blades sunk easily into the skin of the tree and she twirled around the trunk, robbing her fall of its momentum. Cinder landed gently on the forest floor and pulled her blades free of the tree. They remained in her hands, and she scanned the forest floor around her warily. Servant of Salem or not, the Grimm would still attack Cinder as readily as they would any other human. Fortunately none were forthcoming, and Cinder made her way to where she and Neo were supposed to meet. It was no more than a few minutes away from where she had landed, and Neo herself should also be making her way to the meeting point.

She smiled to herself as she entered the clearing. So far, so good.

However, things got quickly not good when she saw someone kneeling in the clearing, someone who was clearly not Neo. The young man looked up, his hand drifting towards the large sword on his back nervously, and his sapphire eyes met with her amber orbs just as Neo entered the clearing from the other side. The petite girl's mouth formed an O in surprise and she quickly backpedaled out of the clearing and away.

* * *

"Headmaster, the cameras are back up. You're... going to want to see this."

Headmaster Ozpin suppressed a sigh as he took the tablet from Glynda Goodwitch, deputy headmistress of Beacon. The cameras in the Emerald Forest had suddenly lost connection for unknown reasons and their technicians had been hard at work correcting the problem. Not having the cameras functioning could lead to all kinds of problems.

Like the one that had just appeared, for instance.

"Glynda," Ozpin said after a nonchalant sip of his coffee, "who is this?"

"We don't know as of yet," she admitted as she watched the screen over his shoulder. "We've already pulled pictures of his face from every possible angle and are running them through the database of every kingdom. We'll know his identity soon enough."

The person in question was a tall young man with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. A large sword was slung across his back, and a shorter gladius was strapped to his hip, but he had not touched either. Ozpin's eyes slid over to the other person in the frame of the camera. If memory served this girl was Cinder Fall, a student from Mistral. While she showed promise, she and her friends were not particularly noteworthy. The two stared at each other in confusion for a moment, but the boy got to his feet, stumbled, and regained his balance. The mere act of standing seemed to wind him.

"Hm... curious..."

* * *

This couldn't be happening.

 _This could not be happening._

Cinder wanted to scream and attack the boy, but she knew that there were hidden cameras all throughout the forest, and to do so would damn herself. Any moves against this boy, whoever he was, while they were in the forest would spell an end to her plans.

Who was this boy? Some plant of Ozpin's? He had to be, there was no way he would know exactly where she was to meet Neo and how to get their before her. Did he suspect her? He had to, otherwise the headmaster wouldn't have-

"Who... who are you?" the young man asked, his eyes full of confusion and distress. "Where am I?" He looked down at his hands as though he could not believe they were his, and he looked back up at her. "I- I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here, and I don't what's happened to me. Please, who... are you?"

Was he serious? Cinder watched him warily for any signs of deception with a practiced eye, but he was being totally honest. He truly did not know where he was.

That, or he was a better liar than she was.

Cinder decided to bank on it being the former, but only because she couldn't kill him now. That could come later. Besides, if he'd just hit his head on the way down and somehow suffered amnesia from the blow then Ozpin wouldn't let him remain at Beacon. He would be taken back to his home, wherever that was, and be out of Cinder's hair. She just had to make it through this and do as little as possible to draw suspicion on herself. And if a Grimm sunk its fangs into him at some point along the way, then oh well.

Cautiously she dissipated her swords, but the boy didn't try to draw his own weapons. He tottered to his feet, swayed a bit, and righted himself. "Apologies fair lady," the boy said with a respectful bow at the waist that almost toppled him again, "I've been demanding your name, but have not yet given mine. I am known as Errant- I am Jaune, the Oathblade. Pray tell, where is this? In fair Ghyran, or another realm?"

He was certainly polite, though his way of speaking was... archaic, to say the least. And what the hell was a Ghyran?

"I am Cinder, Cinder Fall." She responded with a slight tilt of her head. "And you are in the Emerald Forest. Do you know where that is?" she asked, hoping he wouldn't.

While he mulled over his answer she took the chance to look Jaune over quickly. He was dressed in a grey hoodie over which he wore a brown vest, with finger-less gloves over his hands. He wore blue jeans with a hole over one knee that were tucked into the black boots he wore. His blue jeans were secured by not one, but two belts around his waist, which struck Cinder as pointless, to which a shorter gladius was attached. His hair was so blonde as to be almost platinum in color, and his blue eyes were unusually bright and alluring. Across his back was a large and well made greatsword, but Jaune's frame was so spare that Cinder doubted he could wield it effectively.

"I do not," he admitted. "I'm... let's just say, lost. I don't even know what realm this is I find myself in." He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"This 'realm' as you put it, is Vale. One of the four kingdoms of Remnant. You do know what that is at least, I assume?" She crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly, wanting to see just how far this would go.

"Oh, uh... yes, of course!" Jaune nodded. "Of course I do."

He was lying. Cinder could have been blind and deaf and still been able to deduce that, but this did tell her something very important: this Jaune truly had no idea where he was, which was all the better for her. All she had to do was wait for the headmaster to see this little fiasco, pick Jaune up, and she could go meet with Neo and continue as planned. She let out a sigh of relief. To think, her plans had almost been thrown into complete-

The gladius was drawn from its sheathe, and Jaune lunged towards her.

The attack was so sudden, so unexpected from him, that Cinder didn't even think to react until he was less than a foot from her. Her swords began to coalesce in her hands, but they would not form in time to stop him.

Then Jaune darted past her and slammed into the Beowulf as it leapt out of the foliage behind her. The boy was knocked down with a cry of surprise as the Grimm's greater weight bore him down to the ground. He cried out in pain as its fanged maw sank into his shoulder, but Jaune drove his short blade into its throat as Cinder watched on, still momentarily stunned. The Beowulf fell limp as black blood gushed out around the blade of the gladius and it collapsed. Its body dissolved in seconds, and Jaune was left lying on the forest floor. With a groan he reached over and clasped his hand on his wounded shoulder as his own blood gushed out of the chunk that had been taken out of him by the Beowulf.

* * *

Neo hummed to herself as she skipped through the forest, her parasol resting on her shoulder.

Things were already going better than planned. By luck or fate someone else had wound up in the clearing before either Neo or Cinder had arrived, and now that he and the fiery bitch had locked eyes they were partners according to the rules of this stupid initiation. Honestly, who decided who would be on what team by something as random as eye contact?! But it worked to her advantage. She just had to make sure that she didn't wind up on the same team as Cinder. Anything that delayed that woman's plans also extended her and Roman's life span under her service, and the longer they lived the better shot they had at getting out of all this alive. However the two of them had to make sure that they didn't become too much of a problem for Cinder. They had to walk a careful line to ensure that they remained useful enough to let live while still delaying her plans as much as possible. Anything that happened that was beyond hers or Roman's power that threw a wrench into her plans could only be a good thing for the two of them.

There was a rustle in the bushes in front of her. Neo hopped to a halt and prepared her parasol, her finger on the trigger to eject the blade hidden within, but she let her finger off of the trigger when she saw that who came out of the foliage was far from a mindless monster.

The girl had bright crimson hair pulled back in a pony tail with a bronze circlet on her brow. She wore a brown leather corset and a black mini skirt with a red sash wrapped around it. In her hands was a spear and a circular bronze shield.

Neo didn't watch tournament fights, but even she knew who Pyrrha Nikos was. Kind of hard to not know who she was when Pumpkin Pete's was her favorite cereal to top her ice cream with.

"Oh, hello there!" Nikos smiled nervously at Neo. "I'm Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos. I suppose we're partners now. Who would you be?"

Neo smiled back pleasantly. Things had just gotten very interesting.

* * *

Cinder could not believe her luck. Or rather, her lack thereof.

As tempting as it was to let the boy die here and now she knew she couldn't do that. Letting him die would focus the attention of Ozpin on her. Even if she could play it off as being unable to save him, which was a lie, he'd probably still have her see a shrink to deal with her 'trauma'. She already had enough problems.

Cinder knelt next to Jaune and placed her hands on top of his over the wound, internally cursing the whole time, and she began to speak words that came from her soul.

"For it is by ambition that we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of might and defiance to rise above all who would oppose us. Infinite in drive and unbound by limitations, I release your soul, and by my will bind you to me forevermore."

Cinder cried out as a bright hot light burst from Jaune and blinded her.

* * *

Jaune gasped as power flowed through him.

He had been reforged many times. Each time he had keenly felt the blow of the hammers upon his very soul, wracking him with lightning and agony and filling him with celestial might.

This was nothing like that.

This was like being submerged into warm water that wrapped around him, mind, body, and soul protectively. This was like the gentle caress of a lover's hand upon him, or the warmth of the sun enveloping him. Unlike being reforged this light, this _power_ , was not forged into him. Rather it came from within the deepest parts of his soul, like a Lord Castellant's Warding Lantern that had been fully opened. But that spark was still there. That celestial might was buried within the warmth, flickering and small, but there nonetheless. And there was another presence that was neither his nor celestial. Where his was a warm wave of comfort this was a blazing inferno of passion and drive that could never be snuffed or contained, not truly. It writhed behind an obsidian cage of iron resolve and cold and calculating design, but it was there, just beneath the surface.

The light emanating from him faded, and Jaune saw the woman, Cinder, kneeling over him with her hands on top of his own that he had held against his wound in a futile attempt to staunch the bleeding. Her amber eyes were locked on his sapphire orbs, her onyx locks spilling down either side of her face, which was so perfect he would have thought was it sculpted from porcelain, but this was not a fragile woman. There was a hardness within that was unmistakable. She absentmindedly reached up and brushed a lock of hair to one side as she looked him up and down.

"What did you do to me?" He asked as he held up his hands and stared at them as though he couldn't believe they were his, something he'd been doing a lot lately.

"I unlocked your aura," she said, as though that were explanation enough. "And it seems that you have a large well of it." She pointed to his shoulder, the one that had been bleeding heavily. He looked and saw that the wound was sealed shut, the only sign that it had ever been there line of faint, pink scars.

"By Sigmar, you have my thanks fair Lady," Jaune said as he stood. This time it was easier to stand. Whatever she had done to him, whatever his 'aura' was, it made him feel stronger. Not as strong as he had been as a Stormcast, but strong enough for the time being. "But pray tell, what is this aura you speak of?"

Cinder scoffed and rolled her eyes, getting visibly annoyed at his constant questions. "Aura is the physical manifestation of your soul. It surrounds and protects you from harm, and heals your wounds so long as it is not depleted. It also fuels our semblances, though I suppose you don't know what those are either, do you?" She crossed her arms expectantly.

Jaune tilted his head to her respectively. "I regret not, fair lady."

"Well at least you're polite," she murmured. "It would take me too long to explain what a semblance is here, and I do not have time to waste." She looked up at the sky, as though waiting for something. "The headmaster should have sent someone to pick you up by now. It's impossible that he's missed this little debacle, but I will not stand around and wait for him. I need to complete this initiation. You can either come with me or wait here, but if you come with me I would _greatly_ appreciate it if you kept the questions to a minimum." She pointed to his greatblade across his back. "I expect you can use that?"

He smiled. "I have some skill with it, yes." He drew the large blade from its sheathe and rested it over his shoulder. He winced at the weight of it. Once he could have swung the blade with one hand with ease and fought for hours. Now the mere act of drawing the weapon almost drained him.

Cinder didn't miss this, and she sighed again. "Very well. When I get my relic and we return to Beacon I'm sure the headmaster will take care of you. Until then stay close to me. I'd prefer you not die on my hands."

* * *

"Headmaster, I _must_ insist that we pick the boy up!" Glynda waved her riding crop in Ozpin's face in frustration. "He lacks the physicality to make it as a huntsman, and even if he did we have no idea who he is. He is not coming up on any records, and no one can recall him ever being with the other initiates. It's as though he appeared out of thin air! We cannot-" she glanced furtively at the other teachers lining the cliff edge and watching the initiation on their scrolls. More than a few of them were watching the blonde boy curiously. She leaned in closer. "If he is an agent planted by Salem," she whispered furtively, "then he must be dealt with swiftly."

Ozpin finished off the last of his coffee, never taking his eyes off of his own data pad. "If the boy truly was a plant of Salem's then she would not have made it so obvious," the headmaster responded quietly. "Think about it Glynda, the cameras suddenly go haywire, and when they come back on this boy just appears in the Emerald Forest with no memory of where he is and barely able to stand? No, Salem would send someone powerful and cunning, and I doubt she would risk sending someone to initiation in the first place. It is when they would most likely be caught out."

"Then who is responsible?" Glynda responded. "I doubt he appeared out of thin air, or by magic."

Ozpin smiled. "I think you and I both know that there is plenty of magic in this world for the latter to be possible, but... I suspect whoever is responsible is this Sigmar he keeps mentioning. It seems to be one of the few things he can remember."

The headmaster of Beacon went to take another sip of coffee, then sighed and lowered his cup as he remembered that it was empty. "The real question we must be asking ourselves is whether this Sigmar is our friend, or our foe."

* * *

Ruby Rose was absolutely miserable.

Oh sure, when she'd initially been extended the offer to come to Beacon, two years _early_ no less, she'd leapt at the chance. But now she wished she'd said no and finished at Signal first.

Yang had said she would make friends here at Beacon, but so far Ruby had not only _not_ made any friends, she'd made an enemy! That was like negative one friends!

And if that wasn't enough, she and said enemy were now stuck together for the next four years! "This can't get any worse," the fifteen year old girl groaned as she trudged through the forest.

"Hurry up!" Weiss Schnee snapped from up ahead. "I will not be delayed just because my partner wishes to be lazy!"

Ruby grumbled a few words under her breath that would have made her dad and Yang scrub her mouth out with soap, but picked up her pace. Though she would never admit it out loud, Weiss was right in that they needed to hurry. There was no telling if there would be enough relics for everyone in initiation, and Ruby wasn't about to prove the princess's right by failing initiation just because she couldn't get a stupid 'relic'.

There was a rustle in the bushes just a few feet away.

Ruby turned, saw a flash of black through the foliage.

Crescent Rose shifted to its rifle form. With ease born of a lifetime of practice under one of the most capable huntsmen in Remnant, Ruby brought her weapon to her shoulder, sighted, and fired.

* * *

Cinder grunted as something slammed into her and bore her to the ground.

Clutching his side and gasping in breathless agony, Jaune rolled off the top of her. When that little girl had taken aim at her Jaune had leapt on top of Cinder, knocking her to the ground and taking the shot meant for her.

She watched with mild interest as her unwanted tag along groaned once in pain before he clenched his teeth and let no other sound out. _"I should thank him for that,"_ she thought mildly as she held both hands up for the person who'd shot at them to see, _"if for no other reason than to keep up appearances."_

Though the idea of keeping Jaune around as a meat shield did amuse her somewhat.

"I would appreciate it if you refrained from firing again," she called out. She looked at Jaune who was still writhing in pain. "As would my partner," she added as an afterthought.

The girl she was talking to was small and dressed in clothes that shared a somewhat similar color scheme with her, but the style of attire was totally different. She was also staring at Cinder with an open mouth and pale face. "I... I..."

"Ruby?" Another voice called out, "what's wrong? I heard you shoot."

A girl roughly the same height as Ruby stepped out of the underbrush.

Cinder's eyes widened a bit. She recognized the Schnee heiress immediately. While she knew Weiss Schnee had come to Beacon she hadn't expected to run into her so soon.

The second child of the most prodigious family on Remnant eyed her pale and stammering partner suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"I- I didn't... I thought-"

"Your partner tried to shoot me," Cinder said casually, as though she were talking about the weather.

Weiss's eyes widended to near comical levels. "I am _so_ sorry," she gushed as she walked up to Cinder. "I assure you, my partner's incompetence is in no way a reflection upon my own skill. I should have been keeping a closer eye on her however, and I apologize." She looked Cinder up and down. "Fortunately it seems she missed."

Cinder had to fight down a wry smile as Jaune clambered to his feet from the bush, trembling and clutching his side still. "I wouldn't say she missed so much as I was pushed out of the way. My partner took the shot for me."

"I'm fine," Jaune gasped out as he leaned against a tree. He gave the three of them a weak smile. "Truly, I am. The pain fades already." He looked at Ruby, who was no longer pale, but red from embarrassment. "It was a very well placed shot."

"Th-thank you..." she mumbled as she stared at the ground.

"Thank you?!" Weiss whirled on her partner. "You shoot him, and you say thank you?! I cannot believe I have been saddled with such an irresponsible, childish, ignorant partner!"

Cinder watched as Weiss continued to berate Ruby, fighting to keep a cruel smile off of her face. Cinder was almost beginning to like the Schnee heiress. Almost.

"Be at peace," Jaune said loud enough to be heard over Weiss's ranting. To Cinder's surprise Weiss fell silent. She watched the amnesiac with interest. He had a commander's voice, the kind that could cut through even the loudest bickering and command respect from those around you. Odd that someone as young and frail as he should possess such a thing.

"As I said, the pain fades already, and I have only a bruise, which my aura will heal." He smiled at the two girls. "It was merely an accident, and no one was seriously harmed, so I think we can all leave it behind us and start anew. What say you?"

Weiss crossed her arms and glared daggers at Ruby. "I'll let it go this time, but only because the injured party is asking me to."

In response Ruby sunk further into her cloak, her face starting to take on a similar shade. "It was an accident..."

"That it was," Jaune quickly said before Weiss could respond. "It was merely an accident. One that is now behind us." He smiled at the two girls, and even Cinder had to admit that there was a certain kind of charm in the smile. "I am Er- I am Jaune, the Oathblade. At your services."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. There he went cutting himself off again. When he'd introduced himself to her he'd gotten a whole word out, Errant. What did it mean? Was it like a Knight Errant, a knight from old fairy tails that ran around completing quests and rescuing 'fair maidens?' Gods, she hoped not. The last thing she needed was to be saddled with some wannabe goody two shoes, especially if she was stuck with him for the entirety of her time at Beacon.

Which was beginning to seem like a possibility. That Ozpin had not yet sent someone to pick the boy up was a sign that he either _was_ a plant, or Ozpin simply wanted to see if Jaune could reach the end of initiation alive. Either way, it was beginning to look like she would have to get rid of him herself at some point if Ozpin didn't handle it himself.

Weiss gave Jaune an approving look at his politeness. "And I am Weiss Schnee." She waved her hand lazily at her partner. "And this is-"

"I can introduce myself!" The little girl said with a stomp of her foot. She held a hand out to Jaune. "I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose."

Jaune smiled and took the offered hand, shaking it. "A fitting name. It's a pleasure to meet both of you." Ruby smiled back at him.

Jaune cried out and clutched his head in pain, stumbling back from the crimsonette.

Cinder groaned as her face fell into her hand. _"Today is never going to end..."_

* * *

 _Her sweet face smiling up at him. She was gaunt, dirty and bruised, but nothing could keep her from smiling._

 _Ruby reached up and pressed her finger against his nose, and despite the cage they sat in Jaune could not help but think that things would be alright._

With a gasp Jaune's eyes snapped open and he returned to reality to hear bickering.

"-cannot believe you! Can't you do anything right?!"

"I don't know what happened! I don't know _how_ it happened!"

Blearily Jaune realized he was on the ground. He sat up to see Weiss berating Ruby, who was trying to defend herself. He spied Cinder out of the corner of his eye watching the whole thing with some interest.

"Would you believe me if I said I was okay?" He asked. The three girls turned to look at him. Ruby made to go to him, but Weiss caught her and dragged her back.

"You've done enough," she scolded. She knelt beside Jaune as Ruby stood off to the side, her head hanging in shame. "Are you alright?" She went to put her hand on his arm, but Jaune pulled it away before she could. He was beginning to get annoyed at the way she was treating Ruby, and she reminded him of the foppish ladies of the Azyrite court, women so convinced of their own superiority that they either didn't see or didn't care of the common people whose backs they walked on.

"I'm fine," he said flatly, and looked at Ruby. "It wasn't your fault," he assured her. Indeed, he knew what had happened.

After so many Reforgings Jaune's memories of his life before becoming a Stormcast were fractured at best, and practically nonexistent at worse. He retained enough to remember that he had been a slave chained to an anvil in the fortress of Khornate warlord Hagavard Kaul.

Well, _former_ Khornate warlord. Jaune allowed himself a grim smile at that.

Sometimes however Jaune would experience flashes of memory, either seemingly at random or triggered by something familiar.

Apparently he had known Ruby once before as a mortal.

The only problem with that was that Jaune had been claimed by Sigmar's lightning centuries ago. Ruby, the Ruby he knew at any rate, should have been long dead.

So if she was dead, who was this?

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! In this chapter we _really_ start getting into the story proper, and things have already begun to change radically. **

**I always wondered why Cinder didn't attend Beacon from the very start. With Lionheart's help she could have easily gotten a set of transcripts for herself and the others that would be airtight (unless Lionheart was never intended to be in the story until V4 of course. Go plot holes!). Cinder's main goal is to find the Fall Maiden, a task I would think she would want to have as much time for as possible, so it makes sense for her to want to come to Beacon as early as possible. Of course, her plans have just had a rather large blonde wrench thrown into them, so there's that...**

 **For anyone who thinks that Cinder may have come across as too passive, I would like to remind you all that she knows better than to attack him out of the blue, or to even attack him herself at all. Whatever else she is, Cinder is no fool. She knows that her personally making a move against Jaune is risky, so she can't do anything herself, but that doesn't mean she can't call in a few old friends... Jaune better watch his back. Just because she hasn't struck yet doesn't mean she won't. She is inwardly seething and probably thinking about the best ways to flay his skin from his bones.**

 **I would like to go ahead and clarify for everyone wondering that Jaune does not yet realize that he is not within the mortal realms anymore, though he is beginning to figure out something is wrong. After all, discovering someone who is the carbon copy of your centuries dead friend can make you wonder what exactly is going on. Also you probably noticed the description of Jaune's outfit is different from his attire in the first three volumes. I used Jaune's original concept art for his clothes as I prefer them over his original V1-3 clothes.**

 **GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:**

 **Ghyran: Ghyran is the realm of life, where all living things big or small grows in abundance. The ruler of this realm is Queen Allarielle, goddess of life and defender of Ghyran.**

 **Lord Castellant: A Lord Castellant is a Stormcast Eternal armed with a halberd in one hand and a warding lantern in the other. The Warding Lantern is filled with Sigmar's power, and it will heal injured Stormcast and fix any damage to their armor, while also burning and searing their foes, especially the servants of Chaos. A Lord Castellant's primary duties are looking out for the well being of the men in his Chamber and serving as the Chamber's "shield". When a point must be held then you send a Lord Castellant to hold it with a retinue of Stormcast, and no foe will get through unscathed.**

 **If you like this story so far then feel free to follow and favorite it! If you have a friend who likes RWBY, RWBY fanfics, Age of Sigmar, or you simply think they would enjoy this, then feel free to recommend this story to them! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions then feel free to leave a comment or PM me! If you have any questions about the universe of Age of Sigmar or want me to clarify something I mentioned then feel free to PM me! I love Age of Sigmar and RWBY, and I love talking about them both, so I will answer any questions you have! I love you all. BYYYYYYEEEE!**


	3. Chapter 3

**HEEEELLLLLOOOOOO!**

 **We're back at it with another chapter of Errant Questor!**

 **Honestly not much else to say beyond that, so without further ado, ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Neopolitan skipped along through the forest, her new partner following behind.

Things were going well so far. Better than expected, in fact. Already Cinder's plans were going awry without Neo having to do anything to cause it. Whoever that blonde boy was she owed him, though she doubted he'd last more than a week with Cinder's ire trained on him.

Still, every little bit helped, and now Neo wasn't Cinder's partner. Partnering up with Pyrrha Nikos was certainly a surprise, but a pleasant one. The girl was eager to please and to Neo's trained eye was desperate for friends. That desperation would serve the pint sized mute well.

She had no intentions of using Pyrrha's fame for herself, oh no. Neo had no interest in the grander schemes of others. She was interested only in making sure she herself was as comfortable as possible. The thought of the world famous fighter waiting on her hand and foot was a good one.

"Hey, Neo!"

The girl turned around to look at Pyrrha. The girl was standing by the entrance to a cave Neo had passed. "Do you think the relics might be in here?"

Neo already knew where the relics were located, and it was certainly not in the cave. But there was no reason to not look. After all, Neo couldn't tell Pyrrha that she already knew where the artifacts were, as that would be suspicious. Also she _literally_ couldn't tell Pyrrha, one of the downsides of being mute. Besides, Neo had her partner now, so there was no reason to rush for the artifacts. Neo shrugged and nodded her head, as though saying that it was a possibility.

Pyrrha visibly brightened at the acknowledgment. "Great! Then let's go check." Without waiting for a response Pyrrha activated the flashlight on her scroll and led the way in, Neo strolling after her.

* * *

"So... where are you from?" Ruby, the exact copy of his long dead friend, asked him.

Jaune glanced down at Ruby, then back up and continued to scan the forest for threats. This "emerald forest" was hostile territory. It would not do for him to become lax in his attentiveness, even when taking into consideration his current circumstances. Behind the two of them Cinder and Weiss followed. Jaune had elected to take the lead and keep watch for foes. Ruby had chosen to join him, likely to escape her partner.

"I hail from the realm of Azyr, ruled by the God King Sigmar. And what realm is this? Fair Ghyran, the realm of life?" He glanced down at Ruby to see her staring at him in bewilderment.

"This is Vale..."

Jaune bit back an exasperated sigh. "I know that this is the kingdom of Vale, but what realm is this?"

Ruby grew visibly more confused. "Uh... the planet is called Remnant..."

Why did these people not know about the realms? Had they been uneducated tribes people cut off from outsiders then perhaps he could have understood their ignorance, but these people were anything but savages. They were intelligent and clever, and armed with some of the most advanced weapons Jaune had ever laid eyes on. Even the Dwarfs of the sky faring Kharadron Overlords did not have such advanced technology.

So what then was the excuse for their ignorance? For it was not just the realms they were unaware of. Even Sigmar was unknown to them. A possibility arose to the forefront of his mind, but he forced himself to stop thinking about it and focus on his surroundings. When Jaune was in a safer area then he would allow himself to wonder at such questions. Right now he needed to be on his guard. The Errant Questor twirled his gladius in his hand, a nervous habit. In his current form Jaune was not confident in his ability to wield his grandblade effectively. It would be better to use his gladius, which he could wield more effectively, and which he knew from experience could kill one of the "Grimm" well enough.

Heh, Grimm. Jaune knew what these things were, and while their presence was a tad worrying at least they were something familiar. The Grimm, as the three girls called them, were daemons. Everything about them screamed "warp entity", right down to the fact that they dissolved into nothing when killed. The only question was which god they served. Khorne was Jaune's first thought, as they lacked characteristics that would mark them as daemons of one of the other three chaos gods, but they didn't seem to quite fit into the category of Khorne Daemon. For one the Lord of Murder and his daemons were obsessed with blood, and thus were almost always the color fresh spilled gore, but the Grimm had black fur, and resembled actual animals.

"So, what's her name?"

Jaune glanced back down at Ruby. "What?"

She gestured at his gladius. "What's her name?"

Jaune smiled and turned his gaze back on the tree line. "Quick Silver. Because she is quick and gleams like silver." He twirled the blade expertly, the edge gleaming like just the aforementioned metal.

"What about the one on your back?"

"She is Tyrannus Occisor, the Tyrant Slayer."

Ruby continued to stare at him, or rather, at his sword, wide eyed. "Have you killed a tyrant with her before?"

He smiled with grim satisfaction. "More than one." A movement in the foliage ahead got his attention. "Perhaps I shall tell you of them after we are done fighting for our lives and have left this forest." He twirled quicksilver and widened his stance, moving a few inches to his right. "Enemies!" He called out just as the first Grimm burst out of the foliage, charging towards him.

The first time Jaune had faced these Grimm he had been unprepared. He had been weak and bewildered, still trying to fight as though he were in the body of a Stormcast

This time he was ready.

The beast lunged for his throat but the Errant Questor stepped to the side as it charged past. The Beowulf slammed snout first into the tree Jaune had put his back to, and before it could recover Jaune drove the tip of his gladius into the back of its throat. He kept pushing until he felt the blade come out the other end of its throat and bite wood, then pulled it free as the monster slumped with a sigh and began to dissipate.

The second Beowulf came rushing at him, and Jaune leaned to one side and stuck his foot out. The Grimm tripped and went sailing, propelled by its charge, then slammed face first into the dirt and skidded across the ground. Jaune leapt on top of it before it could rise and drove his gladius repeatedly into its back until it stopped struggling to rise. When he was confident it was dead he looked up to see how the others fared.

Ruby was a whirlwind of death. Her weapon, now in the form of a scythe, whirled and slashed, carving through anything unlucky enough to be within her weapon's reach. That almost included her partner. Weiss ducked under the swipe of a Beowulf's claws and her dodge brought her face within centimeters of Ruby's scythe blade. Fortunately both girls managed to pull back before the blow landed, but both snapped, "watch it!" At the other before they focused on their individual foes.

Weiss was the epitome of grace and poise. Every blow was struck precisely and professionally, and with each one a Grimm died. Though as Weiss's eyes darted over to her partner and narrowed, Jaune realized the white haired girl was trying to out do Ruby.

Cinder fought separate from the others, black blades in either hand. She dodged and weaved, flowing around her opponents like water. Her wickedly sharp blades carved through flesh and bone with ease. Jaune saw a smile twist her features as she buried one of her swords in the chest of a Beowulf, and despite himself he felt a chill run up his back.

Behind her another Grimm slunk out of the foliage. This one was larger than the others, and covered in more bone plates and spines. It charged on all fours towards Cinder, who was either unaware of the danger or unable to turn to face it as three Beowulves beset her from the front.

Jayne knew he couldn't get between her and the larger Beowulf, but the same wasn't true for his gladius. His grip on quicksilver loosened and he let the hilt slide out of his grasp until he was gripping it by the pommel. He brought the arm holding it back, aimed, and threw. The whole maneuver took less than two seconds.

A Stormcast's gladius was not normally a weapon meant to be thrown. Though very well made and balanced, it was not designed with throwing it in mind. Jaune had, however, specifically requested that his gladius be balanced to make it possible to throw effectively. You never knew when you would need a ranged weapon after all. Though neither the gladius nor his grandblade were the same weapons he has wielded as a Stormcast, for these weapons were forged from steel, not holy Sigmarite, he was glad to see that the balance of the weapon had remained the same.

Thanks to years of practice and practical application the blade flew true, and with a meaty _thunk_ it hit the large Beowulf in the center of its chest, right between two of its bone plates.

However Jaune has either misjudged his own strength in his mortal form, or this Beowulf's skin was tougher than the others, for the blade did not go as deep as it should have. It still pierced several inches, and the Beowulf's charge was stopped as it stumbled back pawing at the blade in its chest, but the beast was still very much alive.

The Stormcast turned mortal charged into action before the beast decided to return to the attack. He slammed into it as hard as he could, and grabbed the blade, driving it deeper into its chest. The momentum of Jaune's charge toppled the already off balance Daemon and it fell to the ground with Jaune on top of it. It hissed and snarled at him furiously as it's claws scratched at him, but Jaune's aura held firm as he drove the blade deeper and deeper into its chest. Finally the blade was buried up to the hilt and the best expired with a rattling gasp. Jaune wrenched the blade free of the fading corpse and looked around for anymore hostiles, but their immediate area was clear.

Cinder looked at Jaune as he stood up and walked over to her. "I could have handled that," she said with a touch of indignation.

Jaune shrugged. "That I do not doubt, but I had no foes and you were already engaged." He smiled. "After all, we are supposed to be partners. We watch one another's back."

There was a flash of hostility in Cinder's eyes. It was quick, and had Jaune not been paying attention he would have missed it. He almost raised his Gladius defensively, but thought better of it as Cinder turned away and shrugged. "Yes, I suppose we are," she said in a clipped voice. "Let's keep moving." She walked away, leaving Jaune to wonder what he had done to upset her.

He realized he had other, potentially larger problems when he heard Ruby and Weiss arguing.

"You almost hit me!"

"It's not my fault you almost fell into my attack!"

"Not your fault? Of course it's your fault! You need to be more aware of your surroundings!"

"You're not the boss of me!"

"Maybe not right now, but when we finish initiation and I am made leader of whatever team we are on, then I _will_ be the boss of you." Without waiting for a reply Weiss stormed off after Cinder, leaving Ruby standing there, tears of frustration in her eyes.

Jaune sighed and made his way over to her. It was time for some damage control.

* * *

It wasn't _fair._

It wasn't fair that Ruby had been put in a school two years ahead of all of her friends, it wasn't fair that the only person she knew, her own sister no less, had practically ditched her the moment they had arrived, and it definitely wasn't fair that the person she had to spend her whole four years at this school with was the meanest, brattiest, most spoiled person in the whole of Beacon.

There was a hand on her shoulder. Ruby reflexively twitched away, thinking it was Weiss, but she looked up and wiped the frustrated tears off of her cheeks and out of her eyes and relaxed. It was just Jaune.

"Trouble in paradise?" He quipped.

She nodded. "My partner is mean." She was sure there were a number of other words, many of them rather inappropriate, she could use to describe Weiss, but mean was the only one that immediately came to mind.

Jaune nodded. "She certainly has a superiority complex." The hand on her shoulder moved to her back and he gently nudged her forward. The two began to follow their partners through the forest.

"She's just... ugh!" Ruby stomped her foot. "Oh look at me, I'm Weiss, I think I'm _sooo_ special because I'm rich, which means I'm better than you in every way!"

She glanced at Jaune, who was smiling wryly at her. "A bit exaggerated perhaps, but not an inaccurate depiction of her." Ruby giggled. "However," Jaune continued, "she is right about one thing: you do need to be more aware of your surroundings."

Ruby sputtered indignantly. "You- you're siding with her?!" Before she could continue Jaune held up a hand for silence and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. It was enough to keep Ruby from going off on a tirade. It was odd, a part of her thought, that all he had to do to demand silence was raise his hand. There was no shouting, no verbal command like her teachers or her father would have needed. It was as though he expected to be listened to, but not in the same way Weiss expected to be listened to. Weiss demanded to listened to based simply on the merit of her family name. Jaune, meanwhile, did not _demand_ to be listened to. He expected to be listended to, and because he expected to be listened to, he was. His very presence commanded the respect, or at the very least the attention, of those around him. Before Ruby could ponder further on this Jaune continued speaking.

"I do not side with anyone, Ruby. I am simply making an observation. Weiss is right in that you need to be more aware of your surroundings, but _how_ she conveyed that was wrong. You are a capable warrior, despite your age. You are as fast and agile as a gryph-hound, but when you strike you do so with the power of a Dracoth. However, you are focused only on the foe before you. A warrior must remain aware of their surroundings at all times. When your allies strike, you must strike _with_ them, not as though you fight alone. Often times teamwork and stragety can make or break a battle. The majority of the time the army that fights as one will defeat the army that fights as individuals, unless they are completely outnumbered or outclassed." He smiled at her. "Even if you do not like Weiss you must be able to work with her, if only temporarily. And don't worry, I will say much of the same to Weiss too."

Despite herself Ruby felt her face heating up. She looked away and mumbled a quick thank you. It was nice to hear from someone that they believed in her, especially after all the berating and nagging from Weiss.

She squeaked as Jaune's hand, which she had forgotten was still on her back, made its way to her head where it ruffled her hair. "Of course," he said kindly, "for what are friends for, if not to be there when you need them?"

Ruby peeked up at him from around the hand on her head and saw him smiling down at her. A sun beam that had penetrated the forest canopy shined down on him and made it seem as though his blonde, nearly platinum hair was glowing. All at once Ruby got the weird and absurd idea that Jaune was not entirely human. Not in the sense that he was a Faunus in disguise, but there was definitely something _different_ about him. It faded however, and she was left standing there awkwardly, his hand still on her head and a far off look in his eyes, as though he was thinking of a different time.

Then he snapped back into focus and looked at his hand, which still rested in her hair. "Apologies," he said with a nervous chuckle. "I should not have gotten so familiar." He pulled his hand back, and Ruby was surprised to find that she kind of missed it.

"It's alright," she said honestly. "Yang does the same thing all the time."

"Yang?"

"She's my older sister," Ruby explained as they walked. "She's somewhere in this forest too, but I haven't found her yet. I was trying to partner with her, but ran into Weiss instead. I didn't want to partner with anyone but Yang, though I wouldn't mind having you as a partner," she admitted.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You'd rather have the scrawny amnesiac as a partner? I think Cinder would not mind trading."

Ruby could tell he was joking, but she had seen the way Cinder had briskly walked away from Jaune after he'd killed the Alpha. Ruby couldn't fathom why Cinder would be upset with the scrawny blond however. He was an awesome partner! Sure he was lacking physically, but he more than made up for it by being clever and quick witted, and knowing just what to say when it needed to be said. Sure he was a bit... odd, and apparently had random bouts of migraines, and kept talking about stuff she didn't know about at all like Sigmar, Azyr, realms, and other stuff (for that matter, what was a Dracoth, or a Gryph-hound? That last one sounded cute, at least.)

 _Wait, does that mean he indirectly called me cute? No, bad Ruby, focus!_

The point was, even with his odd behavior Jaune was proving to be great partner material. Ruby nodded to him. "Yup! I think anyone should be happy to call you their partner."

He chuckled, and Ruby saw his cheeks were just a tad darker than they had been before. "You honor me." He looked up, "but we should hurry, or our partners may try to leave us behind." Ruby looked away from him to see that Weiss and Cinder had already made good time, and were almost naught but red and white specks in the distance. As Jaune and Ruby hurried to catch up, Ruby moved with a skip in her step and a smile on her face.

 _"For what are friends for, if not to be there when you need them?"_ The crimsonette's smile grew wider as one word repeated in her mind. _Friend._

It had taken her longer than she would have liked, but it seemed that Ruby had finally made her first friend at Beacon Academy.

* * *

It was safe to say that Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai were having a bit of a shit day. Granted things could have been worse, but still.

About two minutes after they had met up Emerald and Mercury had both gotten a text from Cinder that had only two words: Unexpected Complication.

Though only two words, they had serious implications: either Cinder or Neo had wound up with a partner before they had met up.

That wasn't good. Sure they had contingency plans in place for this scenario, but this still complicated things. Both Emerald and Mercury has made for the ruins as fast as they could without arousing suspicion and had each secured their own relic, then let Cindef know which set they had grabbed. That would leave Neo on a separate team, but it was more important that Cinder team up with she and Mercury. They would just have to do their best to keep an eye on Neo, gods help them in that task.

"movement," Mercury muttered, shaking Emerald from her reverie. She looked up, hoping to see Cinder and whoever she had been paired up with, but it was just two girls who definitely weren't Cinder. One had some similarities, with long black hair and amber eyes, but that was as far as the similarities went. Emerald and Mercury shared a glance and moved to put themselves in front of the other two golden rook chess pieces to block them from these two.

The blonde haired girl nodded to them with a smile as she drew closer. "What's up?"

Mercury smirked. "Not much. What's up with you Blondie?"

The girl snickered and picked up one of the chess pieces, a black knight. "What about a cute little pony?" she asked her partner.

The girl rolled her eyes, but smiled a bit. "Sure." She picked up one of the black knight pieces.

Emerald breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good.

* * *

It was all so _stupid._

Weiss couldn't believe she was stuck in the middle of a stupid forest having to locate stupid relics with her stupid partner who wasn't even old enough to attend the stupid _academy!_ It was unfair! She was Wiess Schnee, heiress to the most wealthy and influential family on Remnant. She had come to Beacon not to be saddled with a child as a partner, but to prove to her father and to herself that she didn't need him to succeed. Her life was her own, and she was determined to prove that, but fate seemed to be conspiring to make her quest for independence as hard as possible.

She looked to her right at the girl walking next to her. Cinder Fall had barely said a word to any of them since the fight with the Beowulves. Weiss had long since gained a talent for judging someone's emotions from their expression, or lack thereof. Cinder was frustrated, on the verge of complete outrage, but managing to hold her composure together. Weiss knew better than to talk to someone when they were like this. She supposed she could understand why the amber eyed girl would be upset. The girl's own partner was not ideal and very, _very_ odd, and am amnesiac to boot, but he was still a sight better than her own partner to Weiss's mind.

"Ahem." Weiss turned to see Jaune and Ruby behind them. She pointedly ignored the crimsonette, but Jaune looked meaningfully at her and cocked his head to one side, the universal way of conveying that one wanted to talk in private.

She considered it for a moment, then decided that if it meant spending more time away from her 'partner' then it would be worth listening to whatever he had to say. She followed him until they were a fair distance from the other two, but still close enough to keep them in eye shot and to rush to their aid if they were attacked.

To his credit Jaune didn't waste any time mincing words. "You don't like your partner."

"Of course not. She's an irresponsible little-"

Jaune held up a hand for silence. Much to Weiss's chagrin, she found herself falling quiet. "I did not ask _why_ you didn't like her," he continued in an even voice that betrayed nothing as his eyes scanned the surrounding foliage, "I merely acknowledged that you don't."

"Then why did you pull me away to talk to me?"

"Because if the two of you continue the way you are you are going to get yourselves or all of us killed."

She scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. I can handle myself just fine."

Sharp azure eyes darted to her and gazed at her intensely, yet serenely. Initially she thought he was looking at her with disappointment, the same way her father would when she failed to meet expectations, but realized that it was a more benign emotion: exasperation.

"Yes you can, but that's the problem. You don't know how to fight with others. You, Ruby, even Cinder, you're fighting like individuals, not allies. We all have to work together to reach the end of this initiation alive, do we not? Does it not behoove us to put aside our differences, however great they may be, and focus on survival and victory first?"

"I can handle myself!" she said again, this time louder and angrier. How _dare_ some... some _nobody_ talk to her like she was a child?!

Jaune's eyes became harder and he set his jaw. "That is all well and good, but we have to handle each other. Not just ourselves. Like it or not we must work together, or fail separately."

"Oh, and I suppose you know just how to make us work together, like some well oiled machine with you at the controls? You aren't my boss, and you can't tell me what to do!" She stomped her foot in anger as she walked. a childish display, but one she couldn't help.

"No, but you seem to think that you are _our_ boss." Jaune's voice was harder now, frustration seeping into it. "What was it you said to Ruby earlier? _when we finish initiation and I am made leader of whatever team we are on, then I will be the boss of you?'_ You clearly believe that you have some sort of right to a leadership position, but let me tell you something, _girl._ The right to lead, the _honor_ to lead, should be bestowed upon those that are best suited to the task, not to those who feel entitled to it for whatever reason.

And that was the last straw.

Weiss rounded on him, stepping in front of Jaune's path and stopping him in his tracks. She placed her hands on her hips and glared daggers of ice at him. In the past this was enough to make people quail before her, despite her diminutive size, but Jaune simply crossed his arms and stared back impassively, which only served to make her all the angrier.

"Do you have _any_ idea who I am?!" She ranted at him, waving a finger in his face, "do you have any idea who my family is, who my father is?! I am the heiress to the most powerful and influential private business in the whole of Remnant, and I-"

"No, I don't know who you are, _girl_." he snarled, his composure shattering as his face twisted in fury. He didn't shout, but that somehow made it worse. "I don't know who you are, I don't know who they are," he waved his hand at Ruby and Cinder, "I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here, and I don't even know what realm this is because you either do not know yourselves, or you refuse to tell me. All I know is that I woke up in this Sigmar damned forest bereft of _everything_ I had left, weak and confused, only to find myself fighting for my life against... against..." Jaune eyes drifted up from her to the sky above, and his mouth hung slightly open. "Weiss..."

Had she been in a calmer state of mind Weiss would have registered the blonde boy's shift in attitude and attention as something important, but she was far from a calm state of mind. She sputtered, too furious to find words to retort with for a second, before she found them. "You... how dare _you_ of all people-"

"Weiss," Jaune said again, but more urgently. His eyes hadn't left the sky above. "Move."

"I'm not going anywhere until you and I get something stra-"

the scrawny boy's hand shot out and grabbed her arm. "Weiss, move now!"

He managed to tug her forward a couple steps, but Weiss planted her feet and pulled back. "Get your filthy hands off of me you-"

Whatever insult she had been about to use next was cut off as a black shadow descended on both of them, and Weiss felt her feet leaving the ground.

* * *

Cinder watched Jaune and Weiss get carried off by the frankly massive Nevermore with an odd mix of relief, exasperation, and anger. On the one hand, the giant Grimm lifting them off meant that their argument had ended, but on the other it also meant that she would have to go after them, and Ruby was already running after it, her weapon in its rifle form and ready to fire, but she didn't do so presumably for fear of hitting Weiss or Jaune. And thirdly _nothing was going to plan_. What had been a well thought out and nigh full proof plan had gotten more holes blasted into it than Cinder had ever predicted in her wildest fears. The only consolation was that Emerald and Mercury had retrieved their relics and were waiting for her to retrieve her own matching one.

* * *

Emerald and the others watched with amazement, disbelief, and a bit of fear as the girl came riding in on an Ursa.

The gigantic Grimm fell to the ground with an explosion of pink murder energy and fell with a final death roar the forest floor. The ginger haired girl, no less intimidating due to short size, giggled with glee as she rolled off of its back. A black haired boy wearing a green tail coat came running in after her and leaned against the dead Grimm's side heaving for air. "Nora," he gasped, "please don't ever do that again." The girl didn't answer, and when he looked up she was gone.

And heading right at Emerald at a run.

Emerald's mouth dried and her eyes widened in terror as the girl who had just ridden an Ursa to death made a beeline for her. Instinct kicked in and Emerald backed away, her hands moving towards the revolver sickles on her waist. It turned out that she didn't have to worry however. The psycho path named Nora wasn't headed for her.

Emerald's heart stopped as the ginger monster snatched up the golden rook piece the thief had been standing in front of.

With a horror that would have felt very out of place were not for the fact that she knew just how much trouble she was in with Cinder, the green haired girl watched as Nora danced around with the golden rook gleefully.

"I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!~"

"Cinder's going to kill us," Emerald whispered as Mercury came over to join her, looking equally mortified by their situation. There was no point in trying to hide the other golden rook now after all.

"You better hope she does," Mercury muttered back, "because if she doesn't, then _that_ is going to be our partner while we're at this damn school." He pointed at Nora, who was bouncing around the calmer green clad boy, who had picked up the final golden rook.

Emerald fought down the urge to scream in despair, but only just.

* * *

"I'm starting to think that this isn't where the relics are hidden," Pyrrha said as they ventured ever further into the cave, a flaming torch held high in her hand. Why she had built a torch and not simply used the flashlight on her phone was beyond the pint sized thief. The Pumpkin Pete's mascot looked back at Neo, who smiled and shrugged in response, wanting to see how long her new partner would explore the cave for. It was a fun game to the tiny mute. She had no reason to rush, after all. She knew that Cinder would be teaming up with Mercury and Emerald, leaving Neo to join another team. That was just fine with her. The more space between her and Cinder, the better.

"Wait a minute," Pyrrha said, drawing Neo's attention. "I think there's something up there." The two girls peered into the dark trying to make out what it was they were seeing, but both distance and the torchlight made it difficult to discern anything beyond the outline of a faint glow. "Maybe it's a relic, or another opening? I can feel warm air coming from that direction, so it must be blowing in. Let's go check it out. Pyrrha snuffed the torch light and pulled out her scroll, using it to illuminate the ground before her feet as she made her way forward.

Neo huffed and pulled out her own scroll. _'Oh, so now she decides to use a scroll._ She followed after Pyrrha quickly. The champion was right about there being warm air, but it seemed a bit _too_ warm, and... humid. It hadn't been that humid outside when the two girls had made their way into the cave.

As they drew closer it quickly became evident that whatever it was most certainly wasn't an exit to the cave. It was shaped like a teardrop almost, but upside down with the larger rounded end on the top. "What is it?" Pyrrha wondered as the two drew within arms reach of it.

Whatever it was it wasn't the source of the warm moist air, as that was coming from deeper in still. Neo examined the hovering thing with the critical eye of a master thief, and came to a few conclusions.

First: it was shiny and made its own light.

Second: it was large, almost as tall as Neo was.

Third: it was definitely unique, whatever it was. Neo had never even heard of anything like this glowing upside down teardrop before.

Fourth: Neo wanted it for herself.

The little ice cream girl hopped up to grab it, but it bobbed just out of reach before coming back down. Growling silently she jumped higher and caught it, grinning in success.

That success turned to ashes in her mouth as the glowing thing moved up and forward, bringing her with it. It stopped just a couple feet from a set of numerous, black, beady eyes set into the white carapace of the creature whose tail she was hanging from. Every single one of those beady eyes locked onto Neo, and her mouth opened up in a scream. No sound came out of course, but it didn't matter.

Pyrrha screamed loudly enough for both of them.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! At the end of this chapter things are really starting to kick off. Jaune and Weiss have been practically kidnapped by a Nevermore, Neo and Pyrrha just bumbled into a Deathstalker (because how could I not include the cave scene?), and Emerald and Mercury just found themselves paired up with the wackiest and the calmest people in the whole of Beacon. And Emerald thought that Ruby was hyperactive...**

 **To clarify for anyone who isn't sure, Jaune still doesn't know that he's no longer in the mortal realms, but he's beginning to realize that something is very, very wrong. He's also learning how best to fight in his current form, using cunning and trickery to outmaneuver his foes instead of brute strength or dexterity, both of which he's lacking at the moment. His body may be weak, but his mind retains its sharp edge and he has centuries of experience to draw on. He's also doing his best to try and keep Ruby and Weiss from each other's throats, with... mixed results.**

 **We also see Jaune's composure crack here. You have to remember that he's in unfamiliar territory and bereft of those things that make him a Stormcast. He's alone, confused, and though he won't admit it, afraid. He's simply doing his best and focusing on surviving first.**

 **GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:**

 **Gryph-Hound: Creatures native to Azyr, Gryph-Hounds are prized by soldiers and civilians across the eight realms as pets and companions for their loyalty and ferocity in battle. As their name implies, a Gryph-Hound is part bird and part dog, usually the size of a large dog. They often accompany bands of Stormcast Eternals, as they're drawn to the righteous souls of Sigmar's chosen.**

 **Dracoth: children of Dracothian, father of all Drakes, Dracoths are fierce foes of the followers of Chaos. Their claws and fangs are strong enough to rend apart steel, and they can breath bolts of lightning at their prey. Those Stormcast who prove worthy can form a bond with a Dracoth, and the two will charge into battle together, the Stormcast mounted upon the Dracoth, not as mount and master, but as equals and comrades. There are whole chambers of Stormcast mounted upon Dracoths. These warriors are known as the Dracothian Guard.**

 **If you like this story so far then feel free to follow and favorite it! If you have a friend who likes RWBY, RWBY fanfics, Age of Sigmar, or you simply think they would enjoy this, then feel free to recommend this story to them! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions then feel free to leave a comment or PM me! If you have any questions about the universe of Age of Sigmar or want me to clarify something I mentioned then feel free to PM me! I love Age of Sigmar and RWBY, and I love talking about them both, so I will answer any questions you have! I love you all. BYYYYYYEEEE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**HEEEELLLLLLOOOOOOO!**

 **We're back at it with another chapter of Errant Questor! In this chapter Jaune and Weiss find themselves in a difficult situation as do Neo and Pyrrha, who find themselves eye to eyes with a giant Deathstalker! Of course, the ones in the greatest danger are not them, oh no...**

 **It's poor Emerald and Mercury, who have found themselves teamed up with Nora.**

 **Well with all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos supposed she _should_ have felt guilty about leaving Neo behind, but considering the fact that the Deathstalker was hot on her heels as she sprinted for the cave exit, and that the short girl was still clinging to its stinger (at least Pyrrha assumed she was, as she hadn't actually turned to look, nor did she plan to until she was out of the cave) it was really like Neo was right there with her!

Well... sort of.

Relief flooded the champion as she burst out of the cave and felt the sunlight on her skin. That relief quickly faded as she turned just in time to see the Deathstalker burst out of the mouth of the cave behind her, scattering rocks and dust everywhere as our charge shattered open the too small mouth of the cave. How it had gotten in there in the first place was beyond Pyrrha, and she was too preoccupied with the massive Grimm before her and the panic the sight of it induced to give much thought to the matter.

If there was any up side to her current situation it was that Neo was still clinging to the stinger for dear life, her mouth open in a silent yet clearly terrified scream. The Deathstalker's tail swung back and forth viscously in an attempt to dislodge Pyrrha's partner, but she clung on for dear life.

Then the Deathstalker pulled its tail back and launched it forward, like the throwing arm of a catapult.

And like a boulder thrown by said catapult, Neo was sent sailing through the air, tumbling end over end.

Pyrrha watched in horror and astonishment as her partner flew into the horizon. A sibilant hiss brought her attention back to the Deathstalker, which was beginning to make its way to her.

Pyrrha bolted in the same direction Neo had been thrown, the gigantic arachnoid Grimm hot on her heels once more.

* * *

Jaune was a Stormcast Eternal. While his body had been inexplicably changed he retained the heart and mind of a warrior with centuries of experience battling some of the most terrible servants of evil, feeling no fear or remorse, regardless of the odds stacked against him. This experience, iron will, and his faith in the God King Sigmar were the only thing keeping him from panicking, despite everything that had been thrown at him in the past few hours.

The same could not be said for Weiss.

The both of them dangled from the talons of the Nevermore. Jaune was forcing himself to remain calm as he considered his situation. Both of them were a couple hundred feet up in the air and rising fast, dangling from the claws of a giant black feathered bird... daemon... thing, their partners were pursuing the beast on the ground, though had made no actions to bring it down presumably fearing harming the two of them, and-

he winced as a loud sharp shriek hit his ears. One could be forgiven for thinking it was coming from the Nevermore, but it wasn't.

Weiss was screaming at the top of her lungs.

Jaune supposed it was a natural response, though it was a foreign one to him. He hadn't felt fear in centuries, not since-

He grit his teeth. Now was not the time for that. He looked over at Weiss, who was still in full panic mode. "Weiss!" he called out over the howling wind and her screaming, then louder when she didn't hear him, " _Weiss!_ "

She looked at him. "What?!" Her eyes were wide with panic.

"Stop screaming!" He called to her, projecting his voice. "We must be calm, else we will find ourselves in an untenable situation."

Weiss waved her rapier at the ground below them. Several hundred feet below them. "I think this qualifies as an untenable situation!"

He looked at the ground below them. It was passing by in a blur. "Perhaps," he admitted, "but we must act, else it will become even more untenable, and I'm not keen to see where this thing is taking us. I don't suppose you have anything we can use?"

Her eyes brightened. "As a matter of fact..."

* * *

Ruby zipped up a particularly tall tree and leveled Crescent Rose at the Nevermore. As tempting as it was to take the shot, the risk of hitting Weiss or Jaune or the Nevermore dropping them when it was hit was too great. Jaune, and admittedly Weiss too, had told her that she needed to be more aware of her surroundings. Maybe she could find an elevated position, somewhere high up enough that a fall wouldn't injure or kill either her partner or her new friend, goad the Nevermore into pursuing her towards it, then shoot it until-

And then the Nevermore dropped both of them, hundreds of feet above the earth.

Screaming like a banshee Ruby bolted towards where they were falling.

* * *

In the face of mutual danger Weiss and Jaune had forgotten their earlier spat, understanding that if they wanted to survive they needed to work together. Weiss had, much to her chagrin, been too busy panicking to think of a way to escape the Nevermore. Jaune however had remained calm and collected. He had helped her calm down and think instead of succumbing to blind panic, but it was Weiss herself who would save the both of them. On Jaune's signal the both of them had stabbed their blades into the Nevermore's talons, causing it to release them. Normally doing this several hundred feet in the air would have been suicide, but as Jaune looped an arm around her waist Weiss closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Beneath their feet, a glowing sigil appeared. It appeared at an angle, as did the next several after it, forming a ramp for the two of them to slide down until they reached the last glyph, which they stopped on.

"Good work," Jaune said as they skidded to a halt. "Now we just have to-"

A multi colored blur slammed into him and he was sent flying.

* * *

Neopolitan wasn't having a good day.

Oh sure, it had started out just fine, and gotten even better when Cinder had found herself with a different partner. Things had _really_ started looking up when Neo had found herself a celebrity as her own partner.

But she had forgotten a very important lesson Roman had taught her.

 _"Neo, if a deal looks good to be true then it probably is. Unless you've got a gun to the other guy's head, in which case the deal is probably exactly what it looks like. Survival instinct is a wonderful thing."_

Of course, Neo lacked the ability to hold a gun to the universe's head, so the last part was useless in her current situation. The point was, Neopolitan should have known that something would have gone wrong sooner or later.

 _"Though I don't think I would have been capable of expecting just how wrong things would go,"_ that small, somehow still rational part of her mind mused as she hurtled through the air. The other ninety to ninety five percent of her mind was more focused on blind panic. Her mouth was open in a silent scream as she tumbled out of control, and she could actually feel the trajectory of her flight beginning to lower, bringing her closer to impacting the earth below at what was, if not terminal velocity, still fast enough to leave her as a pink, white, and brown stain on the ground..

She had initially thought to use her umbrella to slow herself, but when she'd reached for the weapon on her hip she'd found it missing, probably falling off at some point during her flight.

As the ground sped ever closer, Neopolitan closed her eyes, no longer able to watch her impending death draw inevitably closer. _"Roman..."_

Then she slammed into something.

At first she'd thought it was the ground, but she could still feel herself falling, and as far as she knew the ground didn't go "oof!" when you slammed into it, and it certainly didn't lock arms around your waist.

Neo opened her eyes and saw she was in the arms of a young man, long messy blonde hair flying about his face as the two of them fell. Neo recognized him as the boy that Cinder has inadvertently wound up with as a partner.

"Er... hi?" He said uncertainly, remarkably calm given then situation. She waved at him and looked past him at the rapidly approaching ground. Her eyes widened and she pointed at the massive oak tree the both of them were headed towards. The boy turned and looked, then cursed. "By Sigmar, hold onto me!" He tightened his grip on her waist with one arm, then pressed her head into his chest with the other hand.

* * *

Jaune tightened his grip on the girl who'd slammed into him, determined to shield her from the worst of the impact.

What would happen to him, if he died here? He had no doubt that he would, for at the speed he was falling the impact with the tree would kill him, aura or not.

Normally the question would have been an easy one to answer. He would return to Azyr to be reforged upon the anvil of Apotheosis, as all Stormcast were. Now however, the answer was not so clear. Would whatever had been done to him to make him mortal stop his soul from returning to the Sigmarabulum? Would he die and his soul travel to Hyish, the realm of the dead, or would his essence be obliterated entirely? He almost hoped it was the latter. Nagash, god of the dead, had a long standing grudge against Sigmar for the creation of the Stormcast, as he saw the souls of the ancient heroes of the Stormhosts as his property. A Stormcast whose soul was lost to Hyish would not find rest.

Jaune grit his teeth and stared at the blue sky overhead. If he was to die, he wanted his last sight to be of the heavens, Sigmar's holy domain.

Then his back hit something that was decidedly un-treelike.

For starters it glowed weirdly, and he hit it at an angle and was sliding down it. Then he slid off of it into open air again, only to slide across another one a moment later. He looked back in the directing he'd been falling and saw a glowing white glyph, then saw Weiss in the distance standing on her own glyph pointing her rapier at them. Even from here he could see the strain on her face.

Immediately he realized what she was doing. The girl was forming a ramp of glyphs similar to the ones she'd used to halt their fall. If nothing else she was a fast thinker.

Soon their descent ended with Jaune skidding to a halt on the earth on his back, the little girl who'd slammed into him, still laying atop him. He unwound his arms and looked at her. "Are you alright?"

The girl sat up straddling his waist, and Jaune realized his initial assessment of her was incorrect. She was little to be sure, perhaps shorter than Ruby, but this was no girl. She was a young woman, somewhere in her late teens, and had a fit, lithe figure to match dressed in an outfit that was clearly designed to accentuate that figure and draw attention to certain ah, assets. A quick look over was all Jaune needed to be sure she was unharmed, but the way one corner of her lips curled up in a wry smile told Jaune she didn't think he was checking her for injuries.

"Hi, he said a tad awkwardly, "if you don't mind, I'd like to get up miss."

The girl cocked her head the side and pursed her lips, as though examining him and thinking carefully. Then with a shrug she bent down and kissed his cheek. With that she hopped up and skipped away, leaving a bewildered Jaune on the ground. He stood up and dusted himself off. "There seems to be no end to this realm's strangeness."

"JAUNE!"

He looked up and saw Ruby bearing down on him, a flurry of rose petals in her wake and Cinder running after her. His eyes widened and he held up his hands. "Ruby, don't- _oof_!"

* * *

Relief washed over the young huntress in training as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're okay!" She shouted happily.

"Hrk... breathe..." he gasped, and Ruby loosesened her grip on his neck. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she looked up at him, arms still around his neck. He was tall enough that she had to stand on the very edge of her boots to keep her arms around his neck. She'd seen how he and Weiss had stopped their fall with the glyphs, and when that girl had slammed into him. She'd seen how Weiss had guided them down safely. She'd also seen the girl kiss him before getting up off of him and leaving. Did she know him? Were they... together?

"I'm fine," he said with a kind smile as he ruffled her hair. "Weiss saved our- wait, where is Weiss?"

"She's fine," Ruby assured him. She released him and pointed over his shoulder. "She's just drifting down on her glyph."

Right as Ruby said that Weiss limply swayed to one side and fell off the glyph. "Oh, come on!" the crimsonette shouted as she and Jaune sprinted to her. In the distance she could see other people running towards the falling heiress, but Ruby could tell that none of them would reach her in time. The young huntress looked around, desperately trying to think of something she could do. She had Crescent Rose and her semblance, surely there was something she could do to save Weiss? Perhaps she could- no then she'd just- wait, yes!

Ruby activated her semblance darted forward as a red and black blur, leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake. She activated Crescent Rose, aimed the barrel at the ground, and simultaneously leapt into the air and fired.

The combined force of her semblance powered leap and the recoil from Crescent Rose catapulted her right up to Weiss. She wrapped the arm not gripping Crescent Rose around her partner's waist. As she fell towards the ground she activated the blade on her scythe rifle and plunged it into the a tree as she fell past it. Ruby's momentum sent her spinning around the tree, the unreasonably sharp edge of the weapon splitting the wood like paper, until she skidded to a halt on the ground. She lowered the heiress to the ground and looked her over. The girl's eyes were shut. "Weiss?" Ruby shook her shoulders gently.

"She's fine," Jaune said as he knelt next to her, pressing his fingers against her wrist to check her pulse. "She's exhausted, but uninjured." He looked up at her. "Her magic is exceptionally powerful. I'm not surprised she collapsed after using it as much as she had."

Ruby stared at him in confusion. "Magic?"

He nodded. "Her glyphs. I've never seen a spell like it before."

"That's... not magic," Ruby explained hesitantly. "It's her semblance."

It was Jaune's turn to look confused. "A what?"

Sometimes Ruby forgot that Jaune was an amnesiac. "They're special abilities everyone has. Each one is unique to the person who has it. People with their auras unlocked can use their semblances. It's kind of like a super power."

"Or like magic."

Ruby shook her head. "Magic is more like... summoning lightning storms, and stuff."

"And how is summoning glyphs any less magical?" Jaune queried.

Ruby's mouth opened and closed, unsure of how to respond to that. "I... don't know," she admitted a few moments later.

He smiled kindly, the way her teachers back at Signal had when they were about to share wisdom born from experience with their students. "Then perhaps one should not disregard it as a possibility." He looked around m, as though a thought had just occurred to him. "Where is Cinder?"

Ruby frowned. "She was right behind me. Where'd she go?"

* * *

It took a lot of willpower from Cinder to stop herself from running to the ruins.

She kept herself to a brisk walk, eager to team up with them. Even if she couldn't have the team she wanted, at least she could have two out of three.

As she moved to the ruins two women darted past her. One of them, the blonde one, was shouting Ruby's name as she ran.

She could see Neo at the ruins, toying with a Black Knight piece. Cinder has seen identical pieces in the hands of the two girls she had passed. The small woman looked at the person who was supposed to be her boss and grinned mischievously.

Cinder ignored her, intent on her destination. It was enough to know which team the girl would be on. She could see Emerald and Mercury talking with two other people, a calm man in a green suit with a dash of pink in his hair, and a hyperactive ginger girl. Or rather, the ginger girl was talking _at_ Emerald and Mercury while the boy watched on impassively. Her two minions looked like the sheer force of Will coming from the girl was eating away at them.

When they saw Cinder their eyes widened. Mercury looked at Emerald and twitched his head at the Fall Maiden. Emerald looked at him and shook her head no imperceptibly. The silver haired boy twitched his head at the ginger girl and stared at Emerald with a raised eyebrow, as though asking, _"do you want to be the one to deal with this?"_

Emerald looked at Nora, then at Cinder, and seemed to weigh her options. With a sigh she began to make her way to the onyx haired beauty while Mercury made the ultimate sacrifice, and began actually trying to respond to the short ginger and hold her attention. The black haired boy, who Cinder realized had pink eyes now that she was closer, looked at Emerald and then at Cinder with a curious glance, then shrugged indifferently and watched his friend badger Mercury. She could have sworn there was a small smile of contentment on the boy's face.

When she was close enough for them to hold a conversation in low voices Emerald spoke. "Cinder, I-"

"The relic," Cinder interrupted, the aggravation she'd been experiencing since meeting Jaune seeping into her voice, "give it to me, before anything else goes wrong."

Emerald seemed to wither away where she stood. "I... the relic-"

"HIIIIII!" The ginger girl sprinted up to them and skidded to a halt, nearly bowling over the green haired girl. "I'm Nora!"

Cinder blinked, more taken aback then anything. "I'm Cinder."

"Cinder? That's a cool name! Do you know Emerald? I know Emerald, cause we're together! Well not together together because I don't like girls that way but if I did I think I'd totally go for someone like her, but together as in we're teammates because we both have _theeeeese_!" Nora pulled out a golden rook from her pocket in one hand and another seemed to simply materialize in her other hand. Emerald blanched and began frantically checking herself over for her relic, finding nothing.

It took Cinder a couple moments to process what Nora had just said and the importance of the two golden rooks in her hand. When she did process it her mouth went dry. "You... you two are on a team together?"

"Yup!"

Emerald looked ready to bolt.

 _"Okay Cinder, don't panic. This is still salvageable. This Nora girl seems as dumb as a sack of rocks. All you have to do is sweet talk her into giving you the relic, and all will be well. Ozpin may not like it, but I'm sure I can explain it off as simply wanting to be on a team with people I know with him being none the wiser."_

Cinder cleared her throat. "Nora, you see, Emerald and Mercury are indeed my friends. We've known each other almost our entire lives, and when we came to Beacon we hoped to all be on the same team. I couldn't imagine having to be on a separate team from them. I know you claimed the relic first, but I would greatly appreciate it if you'd consider choosing another relic. The girl I wanted to partner with," she inclined her head at Neo, "had stumbled across someone else by mistake before I could find her, and if I can't team up with Mercury and Emerald I would be on a team of strangers, separated from my childhood friends for the first time in, well... forever." She adopted an expression designed to encourage pity, even as she fought the urge to gag.

The look on Nora's face made it all worth it though. The girl looked at the Golden rook in her hands, then at Cinder. "Well..."

There was a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood behind them. Cinder turned to see a massive Deathstalker burst into the clearing pursuing Ruby, the blonde girl, who was now carrying Weiss over one shoulder and Jaune over the other, the black haired girl, and a red headed girl Cinder recognized as Pyrrha Nikos even at this distance.

Nora gasped. "Is that a Deathstalker?" Cinder turned to look at her. She almost backed away when she saw the dangerous gleam in her eyes. The girl hefted her massive hammer. "Renny! Imma kill me a Deathstalker!"

The boy, evidently given the unfortunate name of Renny, blanched. "Nora, don't-"

She was already halfway towards it by the time he'd finished saying her name.

He sighed and ran after her, leaving Cinder standing there with her two lackeys who looked ready to run themselves, just not towards the Deathstalker.

Cinder materialized her swords in each hand. Mercury and Emerald eyed her warily, as though afraid she would attack them. She just might have, if she thought she could get away with it. Fortunately for them, she couldn't. "We will speak of this later," she said in a low and dangerous voice. "For now, I need to go work off some frustration." She charged down the hill after Nora, determined to carve the Deathstalker into little pieces.

* * *

"Ruby!"

Jaune looked up too see two young women rushing towards them, one blonde, the other dark haired. The blonde one had shouted his friend's name, and Ruby responded. "Yang!" She darted over to the girl as Jaune watched, surprised. This was her sister? The two looked nothing alike. Where one was short and lithe, the other was tall, buxom, and muscular. She also seemed to possess either less modesty or more confidence in her body than her sister if her outfit was any indicator.

He watched as Yang wrapped the smaller girl up in a massive bear hug. "There you are! I was starting to get worried when I couldn't find you!"

"Yang... air..."

"Oh, sorry." She put Ruby down and ruffled her hair. Jaune noticed it was already pretty messy, probably thanks to him. He thought about making his way over and introducing himself, but looked at Weiss and decided against it. This place was still dangerous, and he wouldn't leave Weiss alone and vulnerable.

"So, this your partner?" Yang asked as the three came over. She had gestured at Jaune when she had said that. He stood and dusted himself off.

"Regrettably, no I am not Ruby's partner, but she's a fine young warrior." He held a hand out to Yang. "I am Jaune, the Oathblade."

Yang stared at him curiously, and took his hand. "Nice to meet you Mr. Oathblade. I'm Yang."

He smiled. "I know. Ruby has told me of you. Only good things, I assure you."

Yang grinned. "I like him." She nudged her sister's side with an elbow, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "If I didn't already have my partner I'd want him for myself."

Ruby's face flushed. "Yang..."

Jaune recognized the flirtation for what it was. Unbeknownst to most people outside the Stormhosts, Stormcast did sometimes have romantic relationships with one another, or even mortals on rare occasions. They were still more or less human after all.

"I'm afraid I'm spoken for," he said with an exaggerated sigh, "by a distant yet stunning onyx haired beauty." He looked at the girl behind Yang, who was also an onyx haired beauty, and smiled to include her in the joke. She smiled back, if only just. "I'm sure you understand."

Yang snickered. "Yeah, I get that." She pointed a thumb at the other girl. "I'm in the same boat. This is my partner, Blake."

Jaune inclined his head to her. "Its a pleasure to meet you, Blake."

She nodded back. "Likewise."

"I don't guess your onyx haired beauty is in a red dress, looks like she swallowed a lemon? We passed her just a minute ago. She's making a beeline for the ruins."

"That's the one," Jaune confirmed.

"Looks like real charmer," she joked, "you lucked out." Yang looked at Ruby. "So if Jaune is spoken for..." she looked at Weiss, who was still passed out on the ground. "She's your partner."

The crimsonette slumped and nodded. "Sorry kiddo," Yang said sympathetically, "but that's life. Maybe you two will learn to get along." Ruby grumbled something that conveyed her lack of hope for that.

Jaune noticed that both Blake and Yang were clutching what looked to be identical chess pieces. "What are those?" He asked curiously.

Yang looked at the chess piece, then at him in confusion. A lot of people had been doing that lately. "They're the relics. The ones Ozpin sent us to collect for initiation."

"I've heard people talk about this initiation before. What is it for? Some right of passage?"

Yang's expression only grew more confused until Ruby cut in. "Yang... we think Jaune suffered a head injury on the way down. He's got some sort of amnesia. There's a lot of stuff he can't remember"

"Oh." Yang blinked. "I'm uh, sorry to hear that," she said awkwardly.

Jaune shrugged. "Think nothing of it. I can still fight, and my mind remains sharp. That is all that matters." Though that wasn't entirely true. There was a lot more that mattered, such as their collective lack of knowledge regarding Sigmar, the realms, and a myriad of other things, and also whatever in the hells had happened to him to turn him into a mortal man again. For now though, he was content to let them think he was an amnesiac until he could find answers to his many questions.

"So whichever chess piece we take determines who we will be in a team with, correct?"

Yang nodded. "Yup. If you and your friend took the Black Knight pieces, then you'd be on a team with me and Blakey!"

"Blakey?" The girl in question stared at her partner with a raised eyebrow. Yang pretended not to notice.

Jaune looked at Ruby. "Perhaps we should try to be on a team together?" He suggested.

She shuffled her feet shyly. "I kinda wanted to be on a team with my sister," she admitted sheepishly, "sorry Jaune."

"Nope!" Yang spoke up before Jaune could say anything. "Sorry little sis, but I know you. If I let you team up with me you'll cling to me and refuse to make any friends."

"But I've already made one friend!" Ruby retorted, waving her arms vigorously at Jaune.

"Whiiiiiich is why you two should team up!" Yang said as she pushed Ruby towards Jaune. "That way you'll be on a team with someone you know you like, and you can make friends out of your other teammates."

"Even Weiss?"

" _Most_ of your teammates," Yang corrected. "Who knows, maybe the ice queen will come around and see how awesome my cute baby sis is!" Yang pitched Ruby's cheeks while the poor girl squawked in outrage and tried to struggle away. Jaune suddenly suffered a coughing fit that only got worse when he looked at the two sisters, and even Blake was wearing a smile.

"Besides, I won't totally abandon you!" She turned her gaze on Jaune, and for a moment he could have sworn her lilac eyes had flashed red. "Someone's going to have to break your friend's bones if he tries anything nasty."

"Yang, don't threaten my first friend at Beacon!"

Jaune grinned and shrugged. "You'll have no issues from me, you have my word on that."

"Good!" Yang clapped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Jaune nearly collapsed then and there. By Sigmar, her grip was _astoundingly_ strong.

Then the ground began to rumble.

"What's that?" Ruby asked, looking around in confusion.

"There's something in the trees," Blake said, her amber eyes narrowed as she scanned the forest. "Look, right there." She pointed at a dark spot deeper in the forest. It was rapidly growing larger.

Jaune drew Quicksilver from her sheathe. "Grimm almost certainly, and a big one judging from how the ground quakes." His eyes narrowed as he noticed something else. "Wait... there's someone coming this way!"

Indeed there was. Though he could not make out much in the way of detail, it was clearly a woman running hard for them. As she grew closer he could make out more details both of her, and of what was following her.

"What in the name of the Great Drake is that?!" Jaune shouted in alarm as the gigantic scorpion charged into view.

"Deathstalker!" Blake shouted as she drew a strangely curved blade from its sheathe.

"Death _what?!_ "

"Deathstalker!" Yang repeated as what Jaune had mistaken as bracelets opened up into a set of large gauntlets. "Big mean Scorpion Grimm! It's sting is poisonous, it's pincers can cut a man in half, and it's hide is strong as hell!"

"Can we hurt it?" Jaune asked.

"If we hit it enough, yeah," Ruby said as she raised her weapon it's rifle form and took aim. She fired, but the round glanced harmlessly off the hide.

Jaune thought quick. "We need to pull back."

"There's six of us," Ruby protested, "we can take it!"

"Five," Blake corrected, "Weiss is still unconscious."

"Perhaps four, or less," Jaune said grimly. "Whoever that is running may be exhausted, and I can tell you right now that nothing I have can pierce that exoskeleton. And someone will have to watch over Weiss during the fight. We could be looking at having only three people who can actually harm that thing."

Ruby sighed and lowered her weapon. "What's the plan?"

"Yang, grab Weiss and retreat to the ruins. Ruby, I want you to distract the Deathstalker so our new friend can put distance between it and her. I'll help Ruby. We'll stage a fighting retreat, two of us striking it to slow it down and distract it while the others escape. Blake, you'll rotate out with Ruby on distraction when I call for it."

"Are you sure you helping distract it is the best idea?" Ruby asked doubtfully. "I know you can fight, but..."

"I thought of the plan, so I will take part in the most dangerous portion of it," Jaune said with determination. "I will not be swayed on this."

"And yoink!"

"W-what are you- put me down this instant young lady!" Jaune growled in indignation as Yang scooped him up in one arm and slung him over one shoulder, Weiss on the other.

Yang laughed and simply adjusted her grip to compensate for his struggling. "Young lady? What are you, my dad?"

 _"I'm older than your dad! And his dad, and your father's fathers for at least three generations!"_ He growled internally. "This is an indignity!"

"Yeah yeah. Look, I haven't even seen you in action and I can already tell that you'll be too slow to do anything except get yourself smacked around like a pinata, only when you break it won't be candy coming out."

Jaune growled and struggled more, but Yang's grip was like iron. She began to run towards the ruins as Ruby and Blake darted off towards the Deathstalker.

* * *

Relief coursed through Pyrrha when she saw the others coming to help. One was a small girl wiedling a scythe taller than she was, and the other held a katana in one hand and the sheathe of the katana in the other. As she watched the smaller girl darted off to one side and the black haired girl launched a ribbon out of the end of her weapon and hauled herself into the air with it, firing at the Deathstalker with her katana, which had changed form into a pistol. The giant Arachnoid Grimm turned away from Pyrrha and faced the black haired woman as she swung by. It turned again to face the smaller girl as she fired off multiple high powered bullets from the end of her scythe. "Keep going!" the tiny crimsonette shouted as she darted away from the beast, "we'll distract it!"

It grated on Pyrrha to run away and leave them to fight the Deathstalker alone, but the two were clearly much quicker and agile than Pyrrha was, and could slip away better than she could.

She burst out of the trees and saw others running away. Or rather, one of them was running and carrying the other two. One was a blonde haired boy she didn't recognize who was struggling and cursing vigorously. The other was Weiss, who wasn't moving.

There was a hissing shriek from behind her, and Pyrrha turned to see that the two girls had broken off from the attack and were running too. The Deathstalker was hot on their heels however.

"Keep running!" the blonde boy shouted. "To the ruins!"

A shadow fell over them. The champion looked up to the sky and saw a massive black silhoutte swooping down towards them.

"Nevermore!" she yelled to the others as massive black feathers rained down on them.

"Scatter!" The girl carrying the other two screamed.

* * *

As the Nevermore rained death down upon them and the Deathstalker stormed after them Jaune watched Blake and Ruby break off as a hail of feathers separated Ruby and Blake from the others. The two girls ran off in a separate path curving around where where the feathers fell, but the Nevermore seemed intent on them. The feathers tracked them as they fled, ripping up the earth in a path after them.

"Drop me!" Jaune shouted, "your sister needs help!"

"Then I can-"

"You're the only one who can carry Weiss without being slowed down," Jaune reminded her, "I can help your sister if you let me go."

Yang didn't say anything, but her grip loosened and Jaune slid off of her shoulder. He drew Quicksilver and sprinted towards Ruby and Blake. "Keep going!" He shouted to Yang and the red headed girl. He could see Cinder and others he didn't recognize rushing to help them.

He barely managed to skid to a halt as a line of feathers slammed down in front of him, cutting him off from the two girls. Two more slammed down beyond, one cutting Blake and Ruby off from each other, the third following the path Ruby ran. As he watched one snagged the end of her cloak and Ruby's retreat came to a sudden halt. The girl pulled at the cape desperately but the material wouldn't tear.

There was a menacing sibilant hiss off to the side. Jaune watched as the Deathstalker rushed towards Ruby, snapping its mandibles and its pincers.

" _Ruby!_ " screamed Yang, fear plain in her voice. Jaune thought fast. He couldn't get to her through the feathers, and even if he could he wasn't sure he could free her before the Deathstalker was upon her.

But he could buy her time.

Jaune sheathed Quicksilver and drew Tyrannus Occisor. He sprinted towards the Deathstalker, rounding the corner where the line of feathers ended, and skidded to a halt. The Deathstalker bore down on him, inhuman rage evident in its beady, insectoid eyes. Jaune knew he didn't stand a chance alone against such a beast. Even had he still possessed the form and power of a Stormcast his survival would have been far from certain. But what else could he do? He would not leave Ruby to die. If her survival cost his life, then so be it. But he would die defiant, with blade in hand.

Jaune planted his feet and hefted his grandblade in both hands, ready to meet death.

"Who will stand against the onrushing dark, and fear it not?"

A spark of power crackled in Jaune's eyes. He drew Tryannus back for a single mighty swing of his blade, prepared to put the full might of his body behind it, and roared the battle cry of his Stormhost.

" _Only the faithful!_ "

* * *

 **Oh my, seems Jaune has found himself in a rather difficult situation? How ever will he survive?**

 **You'll just have to find out next chapter I suppose ;3.**

 **So in this chapter teams are pretty much decided. Ren, Nora, Emerald, and Mercury are going to be in one team, Pyrhha, Neo, Blake, and Yang in another (since Neo had picked up the black knight piece) which will leave Jaune, Cinder, Weiss, and Ruby in the final team. Now, these teams are of course going to need names. Problem is I'm total crap at coming up with team names. So any suggestions for good team names any of y'all have would be appreciated.**

 **GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:**

 **Nagash: Nagash was once a part of Sigmar's pantheon of gods. He ruled over Shyish, the realm of death, where all mortal souls would go once they died. Nagash and Sigmar never liked one another, indeed they were mortal foes even upon the world that was, long before the creation of the Mortal realms, but when Sigmar began the creation of the Stormcast it was the final straw for Nagash, for those souls taken as Stormcast are among the strongest and most noble people within the realms, leaving Nagash with the dregs of society to choose from. Nagash has sworn revenge for what he sees as a slight, and in the lore of AOS Nagash has unleashed something called the Necroquake: an event that swept over all of the eight realms, raising the spirits of the dead and sewing terror in the realms. However an unexpected side effect was the creation of endless spells. These are spells that when cast do not dissipate and instead gain a level of sentience and roam the land, attacking anyone it comes across.**

 **Shyish: Shyish is the realm of the dead, ruled by Nagash. All those who meet their final end go to Shyish, unless Sigmar claims them to be reforged into Stormcast, or if their souls are absorbed by the ruinous powers of Chaos. Though there are settlements of living men and women in Shyish, much of the land consists of various afterlives where the dead reside according to their beliefs and actions in life. Eventually the souls of the dead will dissipate into raw soul essence to be absorbed by Nagash.**

 **If you like this story so far then feel free to follow and favorite it! If you have a friend who likes RWBY, RWBY fanfics, Age of Sigmar, or you simply think they would enjoy this, then feel free to recommend this story to them! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions then feel free to leave a comment or PM me! If you have any questions about the universe of Age of Sigmar or want me to clarify something I mentioned then feel free to PM me! I love Age of Sigmar and RWBY, and I love talking about them both, so I will answer any questions you have! I love you all. BYYYYYYEEEE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**HELLOOOOOOOOOOO!**

 **We continue the adventures of Jaune Oathblade in this chapter of Errant Questor! Jaune's found himself in quite the situation, facing down a Deathstalker all on his lonesome...**

 **Before we get into the story proper there is one thing I need to cover that I forgot about earlier. In this story Cinder never accompanied Torchwick on his Dust robbery. I'm sure many of you remember in episode one of volume one how Cinder was flying the getaway Bullhead for Torchwick, and fought off Ruby and Glynda while they made their escape. I've always felt like that scene was rather... shoehorned in. While we know that Cinder doesn't have a problem with getting her hands dirty, but she's hardly the type to personally pilot a getaway vehicle, especially since throughout volumes one, two, and three Cinder takes a more hands off approach to leadership, allowing Roman and Adam to do as they see fit so long as they stick to the plan she's laid out. All we ever really see her do is check in on Roman to make sure he's staying on task. So yeah, Cinder didn't pilot the getaway ship, we can just say some goons or perhaps a disguised Neo did.**

 **Also I have recently uploaded a new Age of Sigmar one shot titled "Five Years" if anyone wants to give it a looksie.**

 **With all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

The Deathstalker bore down on Jaune as Ruby watched on in horror.

"Jaune! _Move!_ " She screamed as the Grimm bore down on him, but he planted his feet and hefted his blade in both hands.

Someone skidded to the earth next to her and Ruby looked to see Yang next to her, hauling at the feather that had pinned Ruby's cloak to the earth with all her might. "Jaune needs help!"

"I'm more concerned about getting you out of here," Yang grunted as she heaved the feather up. It rose a couple inches, but it was embedded deep in the earth.

"But Jaune needs help!"

"He's doing this _for_ you!" Yang growled, her eyes flashing red. "I'm not about to run off to help him just so that Nevermore can come back and finish you off."

"But-"

"No buts!" Yang snarled in her mom voice.

Ruby looked back at Jaune, and what she saw shocked her.

Just as it seemed the Deathstalker was going to trample Jaune underneath its weight the blonde swept to the side and swung his sword in a glittering arc at the front left of the creatures many legs.

And the leg was shorn clean off.

* * *

Jaune knew that his own strength would not have been enough alone to cut through the joint, so he had used the Deathstalker's charge against it, using the momentum of its charge to drive the blade through the less protected joint.

He smiled in grim satisfaction as the arachnoid Daemon shrieked in and writhed agony. Black arterial blood sprayed from the wound and Jaune was coated in more than a bit of the stuff, but it bothered him none. The blade of his sword had gone clean through and severed the bottom half of its front left leg.

He raised his blade in both hands as the beady red eyes of the Daemon locked onto him. "That's right," the Stormcast muttered as he backed away slowly, "that's right, focus on me. I'm your foe here, I'm the one who cut off your leg." He glanced behind the beast and saw that Yang was hauling up the feather that had pinned Ruby, but didn't have her free yet. Blake and the red headed girl they had saved were carrying Weiss between them, who was still unconscious. Others were rushing towards them with Cinder at the head of the pack, but there was still some distance between him and then.

"I'll have to buy some more time then." Jaune drew Quick Silver and clashed it against Tyrannus Occisor, making a high pitched _ping_. "Come and get me!" he shouted at the Deathstalker, then darted away towards the forest. The rumbling of the earth beneath his feet and the silibant hissing told him that his bait had worked and the creature was hot on his heels.

Jaune sprinted for all he was worth for the forest as the gigantic Daemon bore down on him. At the last moment he darted to the side, leaving the Deathstalker to slam face first into a massive tree. Jaune turned, Tyrannus Occisor in hand, to strike while the beast was stunned by the impact-

and watched as it burst through the tree, unharmed and even more furious than before.

"Well shit," Jaune said mildly as its eyes locked onto him.

In retrospect he realized that he should have known better than to think that a tree would have slowed down the Deathstalker. It had after all pursued the red headed woman through the forest, and had likely gone through a few trees on the way after her.

He turned to run, but a force like a point blank shot from an Ironweld cannon slammed into his back and launched him into a tree. There was a bright white flash that emanated from Jaune and suddenly he felt drained and weak, somehow worse than he'd felt when he'd first awoken in this forest. With a groan he rolled over and looked right into the eyes of the Deathstalker.

The beast lunged forward, pincers snapping towards his face.

And a figure leaped between them and plunged her twin blades into the daemon's eyes.

* * *

The Deathstalker _screamed_ and tried to back away from her, but Cinder followed it and wrenched her swords free in a gush of black ichor. Its stinger struck down towards her, but she side stepped it with ease and slammed her sword into its open mouth and _carved_ its maw open, eliciting an agonized, gurgling howl as blood spewed out and poured over Cinder. The Grimm lunged backwards from her, her blade pulling free from its mouth as it reared up and scrambled backwards on its rear legs.

It was it's last mistake.

Cinder drove her twin blades into its unprotected underbelly. She wrenched her blades to either side, disemboweling it. Gore and offal spilled out and poured over her and the Deathstalker reared back and collapsed onto its back.

Breathing heavily and soaked in black ichor, Cinder turned and faced her new partner.

* * *

To say that Cinder looked intimidating would have been a vast understatement.

She was soaked from head to toe in black gore and offal. Amber eyes burned with fury, giving her a...

Jaune's hand strayed to his gladius again.

She looked utterly daemonic.

"Are you alright?"

He blinked. "What?"

Cinder was walking towards him, the black blood dissipating to nothing, making her look normal again. "Are you alright?" she repeated, "I saw your aura break."

"I'm fine," he said as he pushed himself to his feet. His legs wobbled under him, and he had to lean against the tree to keep upright. "Or at least, I will be. You said my Aura broke? How?"

Cinder sighed as she slipped an arm around his shoulder to support him as she guided him out of the forest. "One's aura can only take so much punishment before the protective barrier it provides shatters. When that happens we become as vulnerable as regular people.

He nodded in understanding. "Then this is twice you've saved my life," he smiled at his partner. "Keep this up, and I fear I will be unable to repay my debt to you."

He didn't miss the scowl that formed on her face before she quickly banished it. "I suppose not."

Jaune sighed as he limped along, his arm around her shoulder and leaning against her for support. "I've upset you somehow." It wasn't a question.

Cinder was silent for long enough that he didn't think she would answer, but she then said, "anyone in your position would have upset me. Don't take it personally."

 _"Hard not to when saying those words makes it seem as though you were forced to swallow nails,"_ he thought, but said, "can... you explain what you mean? If it is in my power to fix this I will." _"Since you clearly don't desire my presence."_

Cinder let out another suffering sigh and said, "no, there's nothing you or I can do about this. I was... I intended to partner up with a friend of mine during initiation, but your presence in the clearing fouled that plan up. The moment our eyes met we were locked together as partners."

Jaune shrugged. "Could we just say we aren't partners? There shouldn't be any problem if we can convince the other initiates to simply say nothing on the matter."

"It's not that simple," Cinder growled irritably. "Beacon would have cameras set up all throughout this forest to watch initiation, and would thus know if anyone tried to switch partners. All we'd get for trying would be a stern telling off at the least."

"I see," Jaune said, though he was still confused. He knew what a camera was, a large clunky instrument that could snap still images of people. It was a new technology developed in Azyr, and not entirely reliable. He had seen no such devices in the forest, nor anyone to operate them, but this 'remnant' had some very strange technology and magic, so who was to say they weren't simply hidden in some way? "Are they invisible?" He wondered aloud.

Cinder looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"The cameras, I haven't seen any the whole time I've been in the forest. Are they and their operators invisible?"

Many centuries ago, during The Long Wait, when Jaune had been new forged and still going through training as a Decimator, one of the many classes he'd had to go through had been a class on the anatomy of the various monsters that the forces of the Ruinous Powers utilized. The class had been tought by Lord Relictor Morbus Stormwarden, a Stormcast of considerable note even back then. The subject they'd been studying were the so called "beast men" the half beast, half man mutated monstrosities that fervently worshipped the Chaos Gods. Jaune had, in the middle of the Stormwarden's lecture, asked a question. Though he could not remember the exact phrasing of his query he did remember that it had been something to do with the mating habits of the Minotaur, or something like that. He also remembered that the question had been asked at the worst time, when Morbus was at the height of his lecture, and had been a remarkably stupid question to ask regardless.

The look on the Lord Relictor's face had been a mixture of profound confusion and disappointment. The confusion had come from the fact that he'd chosen that exact moment to ask his question, and the disappointment from the fact he'd asked the question _at all._ He'd had to do a week of penance afterwards, and he never had gotten an answer.

Somehow the look Cinder gave him in that moment not only matched the Lord Relictor's expression when he'd put forth his question, but exceeded it in sheer confusion and disbelief, and with a healthy dose of exasperation mixed in.

"No," she said in a voice of forced calm, "the cameras are not invisible."

"Right," he said sheepishly, "sorry."

They made their way out of the forest and back into the clearing, Cinder still supporting Jaune, who had regained some of his strength but not enough to stand on his own.

"Wait," he said, his hand straying to Quick Silver, "where's the Nevermore?"

There was an all too familiar shriek from above. Jaune and Cinder looked up to the sky.

"I think it's being handled," the onyx haired beauty said mildly as the massive bird daemon spiraled towards the ground in free fall. The blonde boy narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of something on its back. No, not something...

Some _one_.

"Alarielle's bosom," he cried out, "is that girl _riding it_?!"

Mere seconds before the Nevermore crashed into the ground the girl leaped off of it's back and rolled across the ground, hopping up to her feet with a "tada!" She was short, perhaps shorter than Ruby, and wearing an outfit of pink and white with an expression on her face that just shy of crazed. In her hand was a warhammer that would have left a Retributor feeling self conscious, and Jaune found it hard to believe that a girl so small could effectively wield it as a weapon. Had he not just watched her ride a gigantic daemon into the earth he wouldn't have been able to believe it at all.

"JAAAAAAAAAAUNE!"

The man in question looked in the direction of the familiar voice and saw Ruby barreling towards him at high speed, a stream of rose petals flurrying out behind her. He blanched as the presence of Cinder left his shoulder, leaving him to stand on his own as his partner quickly backed away, leaving him to receive Ruby's semblance charged hug alone. Jaune held up his hands in a futile effort to ward her off. "No no no no no no-"

WHAM!

Jaune was utterly _floored_ as the tiny red torpedo bore into him and drove him to the earth. The back of his head connected with the not so soft ground below and he was pretty sure he could hear his brain rattling in his skull. "Ow..."

"Are you okay?!" Ruby yelped as she got off of him and knelt next to Jaune's prone form. "I thought the Deathstalker had you back there!"

"It almost did," Jaune admitted as he sat up. "Fortunately Cinder got between it and myself and killed it." For a brief moment he saw in his mind's eye the image of Cinder covered head to toe in black gore, a feral, furious gleam in her eyes, and he had to fight down an involuntary shudder.

Ruby stared at him wide eyed. "Cinder killed the Deathstalker, _alone_?" She looked stunned. "I mean I was going to help, but right when I was free the Nevermore had circled around and attacked us, but if Cinder killed it alone..."

"I was there," he reminded her, "but after it broke my aura I was of basically no u- ermf?"

Jaune suddenly found his cheeks mushed together as Ruby's hands clamped down on them and turned him to face her. "Your aura broke?" she squeaked, "and I used a _semblance powered tackle hug on you?"_

Jaune said that it was fine, really, but it came out as "Ish fhun, whealy."

An arm locked around Ruby's neck and pulled her away. "Alright, alright Rubes, keep the PDA on the down low until you two are alone."

As Ruby made noises that equated to denial and embarrassment Jaune pushed himself to his feet and looked around. "Where is Weiss?"

"Right behind you."

He turned and saw the white haired girl standing behind him. Well, not standing per se, she was being supported by the red head they'd saved from the Deathstalker. She looked exhausted, but mostly unharmed. "Are you alright?" he asked her worriedly.

"I've been better," she admitted, "but I'll be fine." She looked him over. "What about you?"

He shrugged. Even that was enough to make him feel exhausted. "Much the same as you."

An awkward silence descended over the two of them. With the danger gone and their lives no longer on the line Jaune, and presumably Weiss, remembered their little spat earlier. The poor red headed girl was caught in the middle by the simple fact that she was still supporting Weiss. Though that very fact was what saved them from the awkward silence.

Weiss gestured to the girl. "Oh, this is Pyrrha Nikos, I'm sure you've heard of her."

Jaune shook his head. "Can't say I have." He tapped the side of his head. "Remember?"

Weiss frowned in confusion, then winced. "Oh, right."

The red headed girl, Pyrrha, seemed to visibly brighten. "You... don't know who I am?"

The blonde shook his head. "I'm afraid not, no. Should I?"

"Pyrrha is- oof!"

An elbow to the side cut Weiss off. "I'm Pyrrha," the girl said again, her eyes bright with hope. " _Just_ Pyrrha."

"Nice to meet you," he said with an inclined head as Ruby slipped up under his arm and supported him. "If you are someone I'm supposed to know I apologize for my ignorance."

"Jaune has amnesia," Ruby explained. "We think, at least."

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "O-oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you... that you..."

He shrugged. "Don't be, I haven't had time to think on it." Of course, Jaune didn't actually have amnesia, but the longer he was able to keep the act up, the better. At least until he could figure out what the hell was going on.

"Well, if you ever need help remembering things you've forgotten, maybe I can help if you wanted to be teammates?"

He didn't miss how Ruby's grip tightened around him. He placed a hand on her shoulder and patted it comfortingly. "The offer is appreciated," he said, "but Ruby and I have already agreed that we want to be on the same team if at all possible."

Pyrrha frowned. "You're not partners? With the way you two acted, I thought..."

He smiled and shook his head. "No, my partner-" he pointed a finger at Cinder, who was talking with a green haired and dark skinned girl, and a boy with silver hair and a paler complexion, "is the black haired woman over there."

"And I'm Ruby's partner," Weiss said, though she wasn't looking at the girl.

Pyrrha tried not to look disappointed, but Jaune could see through it. Why was she so eager to be on the same team as him when she knew effectively nothing about him? "Oh... well I don't know which relics are left I'm afraid," she admitted. "There may not be four of a kind left."

"Don't worry about it," Yang said as she strolled up to them. "It's all good." She tossed two objects to Ruby and Jaune. He looked at the figure in his hand, and saw it was a golden queen chess piece. He glanced over and saw that Ruby had an identical chess piece. "The golden queen pieces were the only ones left," she explained. "Looks like you two are going to be teammates after all."

Ruby thrust a fist into the air and cheered, while Jaune smiled. Wherever he was, at least he knew he had someone he could trust. Though, he couldn't explain _why_ he felt he could trust this Ruby. Logically speaking this couldn't be his long dead friend. It was simply impossible. He'd have been inclined to think that this was all some Tzneetchian illusion, but twice now he'd been nearly killed, and Jaune knew what near death experiences and actual death felt like. It wasn't something that could be imitated even by the cleverest sorcerer. This place, whatever it was, _wherever_ it was, was real, and he intended to find out how to return to Sigmar.

But it would be nice to have at least one person he could trust and confide in, at least to an extent.

Yang nudged Pyrrha's side. "And we," she held up her own chess piece, a Black Knight, "Are gonna be teamsies!" She sang out.

"Teamsies?" Pyrrha asked.

"Teamsies," Yang confirmed.

"Teamsies!" cheered Ruby, hugging Jaune.

Jaune grunted as the surprisingly strong hug squeezed the air out of him, but he smiled. "Teamsies," he agreed.

* * *

Professor Ozpin looked up from his data pad as Jaune walked into his office. "Mr. Oathblade, is it? Please take a seat."

The young man took the offered seat with a nod of thanks and looked around at his surroundings. He had a dazed look on his face, as though he couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing.

If Ozpin's suspicions about the boy were right then he could hardly blame him for being shocked.

When the Bullhead had picked up the initiates from the Emerald Forest and shuttled then back to the academy Ozpin had wasted no time in calling Jaune up to his office. The two of them needed to have a private chat.

"I imagine this must be a lot for you to take in," Ozpin said as he poured coffee into his mug from a thermos. He held out a cup to Jaune. "Coffee?"

The young man seemed to think about it for a moment, then nodded and accepted the cup. "It is a lot for me to process, and yes, please." Ozpin poured a healthy amount into the mug before closing the thermos up again.

The headmaster didn't miss how Jaune didn't take a sip from his own mug until after Ozpin had drank from his. The boy was cautious.

"Mr. Jaune, your presence at initiation... can you explain how you got there?"

The young man took another sip of coffee, a thoughtful look on his face. "No," he said eventually, "I do not."

Ozpin nodded. "I didn't think you would be able to," he replied. "We've run your features through the database of each of the four kingdoms, and so far have gotten no matches. For all intents and purposes, you do not exist. Can you explain this?"

Jaune shook his head. "Headmaster, I am honestly as confused about this as you are, if not more. I do not know how or why, I am here." He tapped the side of his head. "I seem to have suffered a form of amnesia, so there are some things I simply... don't remember."

Ozpin took a sip of coffee and nodded. "So I heard. Normally your condition alone would be grounds enough to have you removed from this academy and returned home, wherever that may be. This is not even taking into account the mystery of your presence at initiation, and your lacking physiology. I have every reason I need to send you home. Indeed this is exactly the course of action the deputy headmistress has recommended to me several times."

Ozpin took another sip of coffee, finishing off the amount in his cup. "However, Beacon academy's purpose is the training of the next generation of huntsmen and huntresses, our first line of defense against the creatures of Grimm." The headmaster turned his monitor to face Jaune and played the video on it. It was a hastily edited collaboration of Jaune actions in the Emerald Forest, from his attacking the Beowulf that had snuck up on Cinder, to his talk with Ruby and Weiss, and ending with his confrontation with the Deathstalker. "Despite finding yourself in unfamiliar and hostile territory you not only kept a level head, but found allies and took charge of the situation. You showed initiative, courage, cunning, and most importantly leadership." The wizard extended a hand to Jaune. "While there is room for improvement in other areas, you show those qualities that are most important for a huntsman, and thus I would like to extend to you the opportunity to attend my academy. You would be on a team with your partner Miss Fall, and with Miss Rose and Miss Schnee for four years, and at the end you will be a fully fledged huntsman with all the rights, perks, and duties that come with that title. What do you say?"

Jaune sat there, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Before I decide," he said carefully, "I have some questions."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't. Ask away."

"Why are you really extending this offer to me?"

Ozpin blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Jaune leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "I know there's more you aren't telling me. What is it?"

"Very well," Ozpin acquiesced. "You are... an unknown factor. Your past is a mystery, as are your motives. If I were to simply let you go into the wider world I have no way of knowing what you might do, who you might align yourself with. What's more, though only a young man you are clearly possessed of a cunning mind with a strong grasp of tactics, far stronger than I would expect of someone your age. To be quite frank, I would be more at ease if you were here under my roof and training to fight the Grimm than out in the wider world unsupervised where you might tie your fate to those of... let's just say, weaker moral fiber."

"Flattery will get you nowhere headmaster," Jaune warned. "And say I did decide to leave. Would you try to stop me, lest I do ally myself with your enemies?"

"I do not flatter, Mr. Oathblade, I speak only the truth. And if you did decide to leave then I would not interfere."

"And what do you know about Sigmar and Azyr?"

"Nothing. Though I know they hold some importance to you I've never heard any reference to either until-"

Jaune's fist slammed down on the table. He was out of his seat and his face was inches from Ozpin's. The headmaster's eyes widened slightly in alarm. In Jaune's eyes he could see crackling blue electricity, and he smelled... clean water and ozone. The scent of a brewing storm.

The scent of the God King.

"Do not _lie_ to me," Jaune snarled, "you know more than you are letting on!"

"Maybe," Ozpin said evenly, regaining his composure, "but can you prove that?"

Jaune's face was absolutely thunderous with rage. For a few moments Ozpin thought the young man might attack him, but with a sigh he slumped back into his seat. "Answer me one last question," the young man said wearily. Ozpin was surprised at just how old he sounded in that moment. "And don't lie to me, I'll know," he warned.

"Very well," Ozpin acquiesced, "I will answer it if it is within my power to do so." He suspected he already knew what Jaune was about to ask.

His suspicions were confirmed moments later.

"Am I still in the mortal realms?"

The headmaster sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, but you are not," he said, and for the first time in many years Ozpin told the truth. Not all of it, for he had much to hide, and much to be ashamed of, but enough that hopefully this young man would be willing to work with him.

* * *

"Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black. The four of you collected the golden rook pieces. From this day forward you will be team Lemon, led by Lie Ren." The man in question's eyebrow rose, an expression which would equate to a shocked gasp from less in control people, unless Cinder missed her mark.

The girl next to him, Nora, was far less calm. She all but leaped stop him, her arms cooling around his neck as her legs did the same around his waist as she cheered wildly. Cinder silently grit her teeth as she watched Ren try to pry himself free of his partner, remembering the conversation the two of them had had on the Bullhead.

Cinder had attempted to continue her conversation with Nora regarding exchanging their relics on the bullhead. The response she had gotten was far from what she had wanted to hear.

"I think it might be too late at this point," she said apologetically. "Ozpin probably already has our teams created. At this point exchanging relics probably wouldn't matter anyway, since the test is pretty much over."

The worst part was that the girl had almost certainly been right. Exchanging relics would most likely succeed in doing little more than simply needlessly drawing Ozpin's eye onto her, even if only briefly, and she feared that her particular team already had far more of the headmaster's attention than she liked. Jaune being called up to Ozpin's office before the team naming ceremony had set Cinder on edge, but when Jaune had rejoined them he had become... subdued somehow.

No, that wasn't the right word for it. He wasn't subdued. He was contained. He was keeping whatever he was feeling locked up behind bars of iron hard will. He'd barely talked to them after rejoining, not even answering Ruby's questions about his meeting with Ozpin.

"Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, Pyrrha Nikos, Neopolitan." Cinder's attention returned to the stage as the four students stepped forward. All the other teams had already gone, leaving Cinder's own team as the last one to be called up.

The four of you collected the black knight pieces." Ozpin smiled, "coming up with your team name was quite the task to say the least. But after much deliberation it has been decided that your team name will be team Typhoon, led by Yang Xiao Long." The blonde girl's eyes grew wide with shock. The dark headed one, Blake, if Cinder recalled correctly, didn't seem to care one way or the other, Emerald was doing a good job of suppressing her frustration, but Cinder was adept at reading the thief and could see through the veneer of calm, and Mercury held a fist up to Yang, which she bumped with her own fist. If there was any upside to Mercury's lackadaisical attitude it was that it was far easier for him to make friends out of people than either Neo or Emerald, or even herself if she was being honest. Beside her Ruby jumped up and down and cheered loudly for her sister, and Cinder had to fight to keep a scowl off of her face.

The little girl was going to be another issue for Cinder. She was young, far younger than the average age of first year huntsman academy students. Technically there was no real age limit for applying to a fully fledged huntsman academy, one of the reasons Cinder could believably pass herself off as a first year student. While typically the majority of first year students were around seventeen it wasn't uncommon for those later in their teens or even in their early twenties to attend Beacon or its sister academies. Sometimes hopeful applicants couldn't meet the demands of the entry exam at first, and had to wait one or two years before they could pass the test, and other times applicants simply couldn't make it to the academy for one reason or another, such as growing up in an isolated village far from the primary cities of the kingdoms.

But while it wasn't uncommon for people to be older than the average age of seventeen to be admitted to the academies, it was _very_ unusual for someone who was two years younger than the average age to be accepted. The only way she would have been permitted was if she somehow forged her transcripts, and anyone who got a good look at her would be able to clearly tell that she was not seventeen, or she was some sort of prodigy or special case that had caught Ozpin's eye.

She had the heiress to the world's most famous and influential Dust Company, some sort of pet project of Ozpin, and whatever the hell Jaune was on her team. As if Cinder didn't have enough problems already...

"Jaune Oathblade, Cinder Fall, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee."

And now it was their turn. The four of them stepped forward onto the stage just like every other team before them had. Ozpin's eyes lingered on them a bit longer than they had on the other teams before he spoke. "The four of you collected the golden queen pieces." And wasn't that ironic? "From this day forward you will be known as team Oxford, led by Jaune Oathblade."

Cinder supposed that was really no surprise, even if it was a bit of a blow to her pride. Jaune was the only one of the four of them who had bothered trying to actually take command and lead them. Well that wasn't necessarily true. Weiss _had_ tried to throw a few orders at them in the forest, but most of them had been aimed at Ruby and had only been her bitching for the sake of bitching as far as Cinder could tell. Jaune had been the only one to actually direct them, and he'd at least tried to mend the divide between the two girls, though that task had been doomed to failure even before he'd attempted it.

Ozpin examined their team again and smiled. His eyes lingered longest on Ruby and Jaune. "It seems this year is going to be very interesting," he said amicably.

Cinder eyed Ruby, who was beaming with pride at the headmaster, then at Jaune to her right.

Oh... well this was interesting.

Cinder had grown very adept at reading people, a skill that was necessary in her line of work. She could sniff out a lie from a half mile away with little difficulty, but she felt sure that even without those finely honed skills Cinder could have picked up on the hostility radiating from Jaune as his cobalt eyes bore into Ozpin's own brown ones, as though trying to strike the headmaster down with sheer force of will alone.

 _"What have we here?"_ Cinder wondered silently.

* * *

The others had begun settling in. Jaune however could not rest so easily.

Ruby had been overjoyed at their new rooms, and had immediately proposed that they turn their four beds into two bunk beds. Jaune had quickly shot down that idea on the grounds that they lacked the supplies to do so properly and safely, and when the others had begun settling in and unpacking their bags Jaune had beat a hasty retreat out of their shared dorm room. Jaune had no bags to unload, nothing at all save the weapons he carried and the clothes on his back. Ozpin had told him that he would be supplied with some clothes, a school uniform, and a basic scroll, which Jaune had found out after some confused questions was in fact a small electronic device he could use to keep in contact with people over long distances. He already dreaded having to learn how to operate the blasted thing.

It was with that thought the Stormcast finally found his destination. It had taken a lot of searching, wrong turns, and dead ends, but Jaune had finally found a door to the outside of the dormitory, and better yet a door to the roof.

Jaune needed to be alone, but more than that he needed to be comforted. In the past when his faith was shaken or he found himself faltering Jaune would pray to the God King Sigmar for guidance and reflect upon his purpose.

Now however he had no purpose, and where he was he feared that the God King would not hear his benedictions. So there was only one form of comfort he could hope to take: the stars in the firmament above.

Though much of his life as a mortal was fractured to the point of being nigh non-existent Jaune recalled having once gazed upon the stars, the only source of untainted light he knew. The stars had been eternal and immutable to Jaune for so long, for in his mind they were too high in the heavens above to suffer under the lash of Chaos. He had thought that no matter what at least the stars would forever be the same.

At least, that's what he had thought.

In his time fighting for Sigmar Jaune had been to every single realm at least once. In each realm the stars in the sky were a little different, just a little out of place, but each and every one had the same constellations even if they were in different positions.

If there were any constellations in the stars of this Remnant, then Jaune could not see them.

Worse still, Sigendil and it's holy light was absent.

The high star Sigendil was a beacon of hope that shone out across all of the Mortal Realms. At times it's light waxed and grew stronger, and at others it warned and grew weaker, but always it shined. Sigendil was a reminder to the mortal realms that Sigmar had not abandoned them. To the downtrodden and oppressed it was the assurance that salvation would come, and to the evil and corrupt it was a warning that Sigmar's wrath would find them no matter where they fled to.

But here Sigendil's light was absent.

"Even the sky is different," he whispered as he sat on the edge of the roof and stared into the black sky above. He looked down and saw Vale far below. Even from here he could see the whole city lit up with electric lights. He thought that he could even see a ship, called a Bullhead if memory served, flying low over the city.

When the Bullhead had come to collect them all from the Emerald Forest it had been Jaune's first real sign that something was very wrong with this place, though in truth Jaune had in the back of his mind known that something wasn't right about this place. It was impossible not too. Everything was so... so _different_. The weapons, the technology, all of it was highly advanced, but lacked any touch of magic. It was unnatural.

Jaune's gaze fell further, to the ground below him. It was the hard concrete of a walkway.

The former Stormcast's breath caught in his throat as he realized he'd been contemplating throwing himself over the edge.

"No," he growled as he clenched his eyes shut and shook his head. "No, I won't give in to such weakness. I am Stormcast. I am _Stormcast_."

The words sounded hollow even to him.

* * *

 **Poor Jauney boy, if only the author of this here fic wasn't so cruel...**

 **When you think about it Jaune's distress at his situation is rather understandable. He's in completely unfamiliar territory with nothing and no one that he can really rely on. Sure he's got a friend in Ruby, but it's not like he can tell her the whole truth about himself and his situation, and even if he did she'd probably think he was either lying or belonged in a loony bin. He is well and truly alone in this. A Stormcast he may be, but Jaune is still human enough to experience human emotions, even fear.**

 **However he does not seem totally bereft of his old strength. It seems as though some spark of Sigmar's might still lingers within him, and of course there is the question of how exactly he has wound up in Remnant. I suppose we'll have answers to these questions later. Maybe ;3**

 **And it seems that Ozpin knows far, _far_ more about the Mortal Realms and Sigmar than he was initially letting on, but what exactly does he know, and how does he know it? I suppose we'll just have to wait and find out, won't we?**

 **Well I won't because I already know, but you'll have to. HA!**

 **GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:**

 **Ironweld Arsenal: The Ironweld Arsenal is the artillery arm of the human Freeguild and the Duardin (basically dwarfs) Dispossessed. It consists of human and Duardin engineers that operate, repair, and maintain the various cannons, organ guns, rocket batteries, and volley guns of the Arsenal, defending cities and fortresses and assisting in an offensive push.**

 **The Long Wait: the Long Wait was the time before the Stormcast were unleashed upon the mortal realms where Sigmar reclaimed those he wished to make up his immortal army and when those heroes would train to combat the Ruinous Powers when they were finally unleashed. As its name implies the Long Wait lasted centuries, perhaps even millennia.**

 **Decimators: a class of Paladin, Stormcasts clad in heavier armor than their brothers and sisters in other conclaves, the Decimators carry two handed thunderaxes into battle that are capable of cutting through multiple foes with a single brutal swing. A retinue of Decimators can lay waste to a horde of lesser foes, shredding it to ribbons in a ripping tide of violence that leaves their foe horror struck as the sheer brutality they have just witnessed.**

 **Retributors: Another class of Paladin, Retributors carry two handed lightning hammers into battle capable of blasting that which it hits into ashes with the force of a lightning bolt. Even the most stubborn and heavily armored foes cannot withstand being battered by the force of the Retributors for long.**

 **If you liked this story feel free to follow and favorite it! While you're at it check out some of my other works, you may just enjoy them! If you have a friend who likes RWBY, Age of Sigmar, fanfics about either, or you just think they'd enjoy this story then feel free to tell them about it! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to share your opinion feel free to leave a review or PM me!**

 **I love you all. BYYYYYYYEEEEEEE!**


	6. Chapter 6

**HELLLLOOOOOOOO! We are back at it with another chapter of Errant Questor. Now that initiation has completed our heroes find themselves in their respective teams. I'm sure everything is going to be just fine and dandy from here!**

 ***Snorts* yeah, right.**

 **With all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Pyrrha pushed open the door to the roof with a world weary sigh. She needed somewhere she could be alone with her thoughts for a bit, and the roof seemed as good a place as any.

Today had been... interesting. Her teammates were a bit of a mixed bag, but none were bad at all. Yang was energetic and seemed to be genuinely friendly, but Pyrrha had met too many people who pretended to be friendly just for her fame, so the champion wasn't quite willing to take that at face value yet. However the blonde seemed more interested in her sister than Pyrrha, so she was willing to give her team leader a chance. Blake seemed content to keep to herself and her books and had barely said a full sentence to Pyrrha. The redhead hoped that she'd open up eventually. Her own partner Neo however was the most interesting of the bunch. Besides being a mute Neo seemed to really take to her icecream motif to the point that everything about her outfit down to her hair and even eye color were centered around looking like the ice cream she was named after. While Pyrrha couldn't say for sure, she could swear that her partner's eyes changed color from time to time.

But easily the oddest thing that had happened all day...

was sitting right in front her, apparently.

Pyrrha started as she realized she wasn't alone on the roof. The blonde boy, Jaune, was sitting on the edge of the roof with his legs dangling over. He looked over his shoulder at her and she stood frozen for a second, unsure of what to do. "Uh, sorry I didn't realize someone was already up here." She took a step back. "I can- I can go."

The blonde boy looked away from her, back over the edge. "No, stay if you like. I could use some company if you wouldn't mind offering it."

She thought about that. Most people would have made an offer like that to her, but most people didn't have amnesia and would have done so because of her notoriety. Jaune didn't even know who she was, and in that brief moment Pyrrha had seen his face she'd seen loneliness and confusion. He looked like he desperately needed someone to talk to, and she couldn't just leave him like this.

So Pyrrha walked over and sat down next to him, her legs dangling over the edge. He looked at her and smiled thinly. "Nice night."

She nodded. "It is. The stars are beautiful."

 _That_ seemed to a strike a nerve. Jaune winced and looked away. "I suppose they are."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "No, it's quite alright. I..." He stopped and seemed to consider his words carefully. "When I was young I used to gaze up at the stars in wonder. For a time it seemed like they were the only pure things in the whole world. Now they are foreign and strange things. It will take time to get used to"

"At least you can remember some things," she tried, "it's better than having your entire life be a mystery."

He was silent for a moment. "True," he agreed, "but there is much I can't recall. How to use _this_ for starters." Jaune held up a scroll with an aggravated look on his face. The scroll was bit of an older model, but hardly obsolete. "The Headmaster supplied me with it, explaining that I would need it, but its operation is a total mystery to me."

"I could help you with that," Pyrrha offered, leaping at the chance before her. Jaune was someone who knew _nothing_ about Pyrrha, the exact kind of person she'd been hoping to meet by attending an academy outside of Mistral. Pyrrha didn't want to take advantage of someone with significant gaps in their memory, but if she could help him...

"The offer is greatly appreciated," he said with a weary smile as he handed the device over.

Pyrrha took it from him with a smile. "Well, first you have to turn the power on..."

* * *

Cinder stared at her three subordinates over her interlaced fingers. Emerald, Mercury, and Neo shifted uncomfortably in their seats under her intense gaze. The four had found a desk in a secluded corner of the library to have their meeting at. It was nighttime, so most of the students and staff would be in their dorm rooms, and the library was empty save for Cinder and her subordinates.

Things... had not gone to plan. While it would be easy to blame this on one of them screwing up the simple truth w as that the blame fell solely on outside influences. They had followed the plan for as long as was possible and hadn't deviated until the primary plan was beyond saving. There could be no fixing what had happened at this point. They were on the teams they were on, and nothing could change that now short of killing or running off their current teammates, which would inevitably lead to a whole new swath of problems. The four of them would simply have to do the best they could to work with one another. Fortunately the others wouldn't have to do much until the Vytal festival except for keeping their noses clean and staying out of trouble.

Most of the operations being run under her supervision were set up in such a way as to ensure that they could do so autonomously. Cinder only needed to check in on occasion to ensure that everything was running smoothly and everyone was staying in their lane. It would be an easy enough task and could be handled over the weekends with little problem.

No, the _real_ problem lay in how little oversight Cinder would now have over her three subordinates. While they would not have as much to do as she herself would, their loyalties might become split. The three of them had no love for huntsmen, but enough time spent with anyone would make two people who might normally be at odds become, if not friends, then at least allies of necessity, developing a certain respect for one another. Cinder had no fear of herself falling into such a trap. She was set upon her path and nothing would dissuade her, but the others did not possess that same conviction. Of all of then Emerald was the most loyal to her. Cinder had taken her off the streets and given her a life worth living, so she was the most dedicated to Fall Maiden's ambitions, but what If that changed? What if Emerald began to grow closer to her two new teammates than to Cinder? Admittedly it seemed highly unlikely that Emerald would ever feel anything like friendship for someone like Nora, but Lie Ren was a different matter. That it was a possibility at all was worrying.

Then there was Mercury. The young assassin was loyal to Cinder only because he had no one else. His father was dead by his own hand, and hadn't been exactly parent of the year regardless. Cinder paid Mercury, and a good bit at that, but loyalty could be bought by other means. She would have to keep an eye on him.

But worst by far was Neopolitan. The small girl was only loyal to Roman, who served Cinder out of a desire to save both his own hide and that of Neo's. She would almost certainly try to take advantage of this separation. She may even go so far as to give Ozpin an anonymous tip regarding Cinder's presence in his school. That could not be allowed to happen. Roman was important to her plans, more so now than he had been before, but he was not so important that he could not be removed and replaced. Cinder would just have to make that very clear to Neopolitan.

"The blame for what happened does not fall upon any of us," Cinder said calmly. The other three started at hearing her speak. They had all been sitting in silence for some time. "Events transpired that were beyond my ability to control, and beyond your abilities to change. We have been dealt the hand we have been dealt, and now we must play the game with it. Fortunately we knew something like this might happen. I have planned accordingly, and so long as we do our best to remain under the radar until the time comes to strike, our plans will see fruition. Just remember why we are all here, what we seek to accomplish. All of us have our reasons for fighting against the system that holds us, or against the Huntsmen that defend it. Whatever our reasons, whatever our individual goals, we all ultimately want the same thing."

The others nodded and Emerald and Mercury leaned in close, the passion in her words drawing them in. Cinder suppressed a victorious smile. Oration was one of her many skills, and she knew she already had the two of them hook, line, and sinker. "However, my plans are not without risk." Her amber eyes slid over to Neo, who was lounging back in her chair, seemingly disinterested. "Your abilities are important to my plans, but there are others that are not as important." Neo stiffened, and Cinder knew she had her attention. "If we are not careful, then certain... _sacrifices_ may be necessary. So long as we all remain devoted to our shared goal, I'm sure that such sacrifices wouldn't be necessary. Am I correct, Neopolitan?"

Neo couldn't meet her eyes. Not out of guilt or shame, but out of fear. The small girl nodded, and a cruel smile crawled across Cinder's face.

"I'm glad you see things my way."

* * *

Jaune quietly pushed the door to team OSFR's, or Oxford's, dorm open. Jaune wasn't going to even bother trying how to figure how one got Oxford when their wasn't even an X in the acronym.

Inside the room were two forms curled up on their beds. One was Ruby, and the other was Weiss. Cinder was still out it seemed. Jaune didn't miss how they had chosen the beds furthest from one another, and he winced guiltily. He should have known better than to leave the two of them alone without a mediator of some kind to at least try and put an end to any arguments they had. He was the leader of this team, and any tension was his to fix as best he could.

With a sigh Jaune closed the door softly. Tonight would not be the time to try and fix such negativity. It was late already, and neither Ruby or Weiss would thank him for waking them up.

Pyrrha had shown Jaune the basics of operating his scroll, bless her. He was fairly confident that he could use the call and text functions, and Pyrrha had given him her number so that he could get in contact with her whenever he liked. Ruby, Cinder, and Weiss's numbers and scrolls had been linked to his as a part of the initiation ceremony so that he could keep track of them and their aura levels in the middle of a fight.

After she had taught him the basic functions of his new device the two of them had stayed up and just talked for some time. Jaune had learned that Pyrrha was from Mistral, a continent far to the east, and had fought in some tournaments, but he hadn't gotten much else out of her in regards to her past. Whenever he'd tried to probe deeper she'd changed the subject, and Jaune could tell when someone was avoiding a topic. Jaune had told her some about himself, but hadn't gone into detail, taking full advantage of his supposed amnesia as an excuse to avoid awkward topics.

"So what did you do before coming to Beacon?"

"Me? I was just an immortal warrior from another plane of existence who could ride lightning into battle. I fight the forces of the Ruinous Powers to safeguard the people of the nine mortal realms from destruction, and every time I die I'm reborn to fight again."

Yeah, that would have been an awkward conversation.

For the most part the two had discussed Beacon itself, their teams, their concerns going forward, and Pyrrha had filled some of the gaps in his information about this "Remnant". He knew basic information about the four kingdoms, dust, a bit more about aura and semblances, and what exactly a huntsman was, and what their duties may entail. It had been an enlightening conversation and an enjoyable one. Pyrrha had been eager to help fill in any "gaps in his memory". In fact, she'd been more than eager. She'd seemed almost desperate. It was as though she was afraid that if she stopped talking he might go away, or lose interest in her. He'd made it clear that he would do no such thing, that he considered her a friend. When he'd said that word Pyrrha's face has lit up as though he'd just told her she'd won the lottery. It struck him that the look on her face had been so very similar to that of Ruby's when he'd said a very similar thing to her.

 _"Am I going to start collecting strays wherever I go now?"_ he wondered, only half joking. He wouldn't deny that he would need to make as many friends and allies as he could in this strange world, this Remnant. If that meant collecting strays, then so be it. It was not too dissimilar than what Sigmar had done with the Stormcasts, gathering individual men and women from all across the mortal realms to fight as his chosen warriors. Sometimes he'd gathered groups of people, or in the case of the Celestial Warbringers Stormhost he'd taken an entire tribe of people, but for the most part it had been a few unique individuals, notable warriors and kings, or lone wolves that had stalked the forces of Chaos alone or in small packs from the shadows.

Without even realizing he was doing it, Jaune made his way over to Ruby's bed. The young girl was fast asleep, snoring softly and drooling a bit onto her pillow. Her covers had slipped down to expose her upper torso. Gently, Jaune sat down on the edge of her bed, making sure he wouldn't wake her. He pushed a loose strand of hair out of her face and examined her sleeping features.

 _"Who were you to me, so long ago?"_ He wondered silently, _"and how have you come to be here?"_

This couldn't be the same Ruby from his past, it was simply impossible. Assuming she'd survived slavery under the lash of the Khornates, an unlikely prospect, especially for a young pretty girl, that had been many centuries ago. Whoever this was, it couldn't be the same Ruby from his old life.

Ozpin had answered some of the questions he'd initially had, but had left him with far more to replace them.

Jaune's face twisted in a scowl as he thought of the headmaster of the school. He knew better than to think he could trust him. Someone like that got so used to keeping secrets that it made it nigh impossible for them to tell the whole truth. Jaune was sure that there was plenty that Ozpin hadn't told him, but what could he do? Alone and without his powers, he'd have to play the Headmaster's game. At least for now.

Ruby moaned and shifted around in her sleep. The Stormcast looked down at her with a sad smile and placed a gentle hand on her cheek. Regardless of whether she was the Ruby he'd originally known from his past, or some other version of her, it didn't change the fact that here and now she was his friend, the first friend he'd made here. Jaune leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. The action felt... familiar, for some reason. Had he done this before in his past life? Had he watched over her while she'd slept? He didn't know. He wasn't sure he would ever know.

The Stormcast took the hem of her cover and pulled it back up over her shoulders, tucking her back in. He stood up, the bed creaking softly, and made his way to the bathroom to prepare himself for bed.

He shut the door behind himself and locked it. The bathroom was of a fair size, large enough for a couple of people at one time. There was a dual shower and bath, a toilet, a cabinet in it with a mirror on the door and a sink under the cabinet. Already the girls had filled the cabinet and the shower shelf with their toiletries. There was some space left for Jaune's stuff, though it wasn't like he had anything outside of his weapons, the clothes he wore, and his new school uniform.

The young man stripped down and turned on the shower. He bathed quickly, reluctantly borrowing the shampoo and body wash of one of the girls. He wasn't sure whose he'd borrowed, but he used the one that didn't smell strongly. It'd be a bit telling if he smelled like rose petals or something in the morning. He took a few minutes to simply bask in the hot water, letting himself relax for a little while. He pressed his fingers against his chest and winced when he felt the rough patches of skin underneath his fingers. He hadn't even glanced at his bare form, knowing and fearing what he'd see underneath. A few minutes later when he finally exited the shower and examined himself in the mirror, his fears were proven right.

All across his spare and scrawny torso, back, and arms were scars. There were cuts gashed open by blade tipped whips and other sharp weapons, more jagged and torn scars from hooks that had never healed properly, and flat burn marks where white hot iron bars had been pressed into his skin. The worst however was the carving and the brand.

Carved into the flesh of his chest over his heart was an eight pointed star, the symbol of Chaos undivided. Lower, on his abdomen, the rune of Khorne was branded deep into his flesh. They were marks of ownership, reminders of his life had been stolen from him.

As he stared at the eight pointed star, Jaune grit his teeth. His body had been completely reduced back to its mortal form before his ascension. There was no remaining sign on his person that he had ever been an immortal warrior of the God King. Could he even really call himself Stormcast anymore?

He didn't know. He didn't know a lot of things, he was coming to realize. Not about this strange new world he found himself in, but about himself. His body was stripped of its holy might, but his mind still retained the memories of the foes he'd fought, of the folk he'd saved and the deeds he'd done throughout centuries of warfare.

He didn't know if he could call himself Stormcast anymore, but Jaune Oathblade did know one thing for certain. He was no slave to Chaos.

Quick Silver hissed as he drew the blade from its scabbard. He pressed it against his flesh. The blade was sharp, sharp enough that even a light touch was enough to break the skin and draw blood. He took one of his gloves, folded it, and stuck it in his own mouth. With his free hand he gripped the edge of the sink as he leaned over it. He turned on the water, clenched his eyes shut...

And began to cut.

* * *

He wasn't sure how much time had passed. The agony made it all blend together.

Jaune lay quivering on the floor of the bathroom, his torso soaked in blood. The sink and tiled floor around it were stained crimson. The hunk of skin he'd carved off of his own body lay before him on the floor, bloody and discarded. It's eight pointed star didn't seem so terrible now that it had been deprived of its host.

Despite the pain, Jaune smiled weakly. "I... am... no slave... to evil..."

* * *

The young man finished fastening the bandages he'd taken from the first aid kit in the cabinet around his torso and checked to be sure everything was as clean as he'd left it. There was no blood on the tiles, the sink, or anywhere else that he could see. The hunk of flesh had been discarded via the extremely grizzly process of cutting it up into tiny pieces, which had been wrapped up in toilet paper and flushed. There was absolutely no sign left anywhere of what Jaune had done to himself, save for the chunk of skin missing from his own person, which was wrapped up in bandages to stop the bleeding while his aura worked overtime to heal the damage.

He exited the bathroom and saw that Cinder had returned at some point and was now asleep in her own bed. Her long black hair somehow managed to still be perfect despite the action of the day. The covers had slipped down her shoulders, and obeying a compulsion he didn't quite understand Jaune pulled them back up and tucked her in. He took the opportunity to openly examine her. Cinder was as beautiful at rest as she was awake, and she was very, _very_ beautiful.

She was also very, _very_ dangerous.

Jaune shuddered as the memory of his partner covered in Grimm blood care back to him, her amber eyes gleaming with malice. Yes, Cinder was very dangerous. Something about her left him on edge. There was far more to the amber eyed beauty than she let on, but... those secrets were hers and hers alone unless she chose to share them, though he doubted she'd ever do so with him. It wasn't like Jaune didn't have plenty of secrets of his own.

He went over to Weiss and tucked her in too. Her platinum hair was free from it's sideways ponytail, and it spilled freely down her back. It was very long. At rest, the young heiress lost her edge and became a young girl curled up under her covers. She mumbled something inarticulate in her sleep, though Jaune thought he caught the word Winter.

Ruby had sprawled herself out, completely flinging the covers off of herself. With a quiet chuckle Jaune pulled them back over her and got into his own bed. It was in between Cinder and Ruby's, and directly in front of the door to the room.

As the adrenaline that had been flooding his system all day finally began to recede exhaustion replaced it, and sleep quickly found Jaune to be a willing participant. What would happen tomorrow in this strange Remnant would happen, and the young man would just have to do his best to adapt to his new surroundings.

* * *

 _The whip scored across his back. he didn't cry out, didn't whimper, twitch, or react in any way. Not because he didn't feel, or that it didn't hurt, but because he knew from bitter experience that reacting would result in more lashings at the very least._

 _His head hung low, blonde hair caked in mud and blood, and his cobalt eyes dull and lifeless, Jaune doggedly hammered the white metal of the sword before him into shape. The blade would be good work he knew. He had a natural affinity for smithing, and he'd long since learned to not skimp on his work. The Master would find out if he did, and he'd be beaten accordingly._

 _"Hsst, Jaune," the voice beside him whispered. "Look, fresh captures."_

 _Jaune glanced to his side at the slave chained next to him. His long pointed ears, sharp features, and bright hair marked him as an Aelf. His name was Hisfalar, and he'd been a slave since before Jaune had been captured. That he'd survived as long as he had bespoke of a clever mind, and Jaune has seen that cleverness put to work enough times to know that slavery had done nothing to dull his Aelven wits._

 _His gaze shifted to where Hisfalar was staring. Sure enough, there was a clutch of terrified people being corralled towards the cages. He counted about fifteen people all together. In the middle of the crowd he caught glimpses of a young girl with dark hair. He shook his head sadly. The girls never lasted long. The Khornates worshiped the god of murder, but they were still men, with all the desires that entailed._

 _The crack of the whip overhead made Jaune return quickly to his work._

* * *

 _That night he stumbled into the cages, filled with the same bone deep exhaustion that he was filled with after the completion of every day of work. After awhile, the exhaustion had just become a part of everyday existence, no more unusual than anything else in his hell called life._

 _Hisfalar was with the newcomers, talking quietly with them. Jaune anxiously looked about, but there were no Khornates around to take notice. The Aelf usually knew when no one was looking and when to move, but no one was perfect. The boy knew that he should just leave it be, let Hisfalar talk with the new meat and leave well enough alone, but..._

 _Jaune picked his way across the crowded floor towards the Aelf. People weren't quite packed shoulder to shoulder, but it was close. Moving in the cages was never an easy task. As he got closer Jaune caught some of what was being said._

 _"Please, my little Ruby-"_

 _"-is going to be fine, we just need to keep her working in areas the Khornates don't usually venture into."_

 _Now that he was closer Jaune could see that the girl being discussed was even younger than he'd originally thought, possibly around twelve. The girl, apparently named Ruby, was short and pale skinned, with black hair that changed to red at the tips. The most shocking things were her eyes, however. They were bright silver like two molten pools of the aforementioned metal, and full of fear and innocence. He had never seen such naked honesty in someone before._

 _Hisfalar looked around and saw Jaune approaching. "Ah, there you are." The pale haired Aelf clapped a hand on his shoulder, grinning widely at Ruby and the hunched over grey haired woman with her. "This is my second in command, my partner in crime if you will, Jaune. He'll take you two to find sleeping places while I see to the others. Don't worry Mrs. Rose, we'll make sure your granddaughter is as safe as possible."_

 _Jaune led the two to a spot he knew would be the most hidden from the Khornates. It was a corner of the cages against the back wall tucked into a corner. They wouldn't be totally hidden, but anyone looking for them would have to search pretty thoroughly for them. "It's the best we can do," Jaune said, "just keep your heads down and don't draw attention to yourselves. Listen to Hisfalar, he knows best."_

 _"Thank you," the old woman said, taking his hand in both of hers. "I'm Petunia Rose, this is my grand-"_

 _Jaune yanked his hand out of hers. "I don't want to know your names," he hissed. "Look, I'm helping you because Hisfalar wants me to, not because I'm a good person. Good people get killed here, and that's if their lucky. The Aelf has only survived this long because he's a lot smarter than anyone in this place, even-" Jaune's eyes darted back and forth fearfully, looking for any Khornates that had entered the holding pens while he wasn't looking. There were none. "He's even smarter than the master, but the rest of us aren't, and that includes you." He backed up from them. "Just don't be stupid, don't be heroes, and keep her," he pointed at Ruby, "out of sight, or she'll be taken away in the first week."_

 _"Who's the master?"_

 _It wasn't the old lady who had spoken. It was the little girl named Ruby, hidden behind her grandmother. Her bright silver eyes practically blinded him with just how kind they were, and something in Jaune compelled him to answer her before he walked away._

 _"Hagavard Kaul, the Heart Eater."_

 _An hour later Jaune lay curled up on the floor of the cell. Most folk were drifting off to sleep or at least trying too. Jaune was finding sleep difficult to come by. It was made all the harder when Hisfalar came over and laid down next to him. The Aelf had a smile on his face. He was the only person Jaune knew who could smile these days. "We did good work today," he murmured. "Those folk are scared, and they have every right to be, but hopefully we can help them make them through this."_

 _"Why bother?" Jaune muttered glumly as he rolled over, his back to to the Aelf. "They'll die here one way or the other. All we're doing by helping them is delaying the inevitable."_

 _Though he couldn't see it, Jaune knew that Hisfalar would have that sad smile on his face, the one that seemed to say that he knew something, but couldn't share it with anyone. "We have to hold out hope Jaune. All is not lost. Sigmar wiil-"_

 _Jaune rolled over and his hand shot out to clamp around the blathering Aelf's mouth. "Be quiet," he hissed frantically at him, "if the Khornates hear you talking about Si- about_ that, _they'll skin you alive as an example. Besides, if He cared, He'd be here. He'd free us." Jaune took his hand off of Hisfalar, and rolled back over. He heard a sad sigh from his friend._

 _"He_ is _with you Jaune. Just... not in the way you're thinking. He can't be here physically, but He lives in the hearts of all good men. He lives in your heart, young one, even if you don't believe it. You just have to have faith."_

 _"My dad had faith in Him," Jaune whispered bitterly. He knew Hisfalar could still hear him just fine. "So did mom and my sisters. That faith got them killed."_

 _"Faith is for the stupid and the dead, and I'm neither."_

* * *

Jaune shot up in his bed with a strangled gasp.

With a yelp Ruby leapt back from him, tumbling over herself and then her bed to the floor. Groaning and rubbing the back of her head the young girl got back to her feet. "Jaune?"

Team Oxford's leader was staring at her wide eyed, one hand clutching his sheets to his chest, the other...

The other was wrapped around the grip of his gladius, Quick Silver. It's naked blade gleamed dangerously in the sunlight pouring through the window of their dorm room. When had he grabbed it? When had he _drawn_ it? She didn't miss how his eyes darted from place to place in the room, his grip on his gladius remaining tight. He looked afraid, as though he expected something to leap out at him at any given moment.

"What's wrong with him?" Cinder asked as she eyed her partner warily. Weiss was in the bathroom preparing for their first day of classes. Cinder and Ruby had both already showered and dressed. Ruby had wanted to let their team leader sleep in, and just barely managed to convince Weiss not to wake him up. Now Ruby was beginning to regret that decision. If he'd been suffering from a nightmare this whole time, then she'd never forgive herself for not waking him up sooner.

"Jaune," she said in a calmer voice. "Are you there? It's me Ruby, your friend. Can you hear me?"

It started in his cobalt eyes. The distant stare came back to reality, and he started as he realized where he was. Then the white knuckle grip on his weapon lessened, and he took the scabbard from under his pillow where he'd been keeping it, and sheathed the weapon. "I apologize," he said, his voice calm, "I was suffering a nightmare, I believe. Thank you for waking me when you did." Though his voice was calm, Ruby didn't miss how his hands were shaking as he put away Quick Silver.

"Are you..."

"I'm alright," he said far too quickly. "Is the bathroom free? I need to get ready for today."

As though summoned, Weiss exited the bathroom dressed in her own school uniform. "It is now," Cinder said.

As quickly as he could Jaune yanked on a white under shirt, grabbed his school uniform, and darted into the bathroom. He moved quickly, but not fast enough to stop Ruby from noticing the bandages wrapped around his chest, or a number of scars across his body. He slammed the door shut behind him, and a few moments later they all heard the sound of running water as the shower was turned on.

"What was wrong with him?" Weiss asked, completely unaware of what had just transpired less than a minute ago.

Rudy didn't know, but she'd recognized the look in his eyes as something familiar. It had been a a brief moment where their eyes had met, but it had been enough for Ruby to see the desperation and the fear in them like that of a wild animal that had woken up in unfamiliar territory whose first instinct was fight or flight.

It was the same look that had haunted her father's eyes after the death of her mother.

* * *

 **This chapter lacks the action of the last five or so chapters, but that's to be expected. After all, they're not in the Emerald Forest anymore, they are officially students of Beacon, some more reluctantly than others.**

 **However, just because there was no Grimm/Daemon killing doesn't mean that what happened was any less important. Cinder clearly has no plans on stopping with her schemes, Jaune is dealing with a host of his own problems, and now seems to be suffering from strange dreams. Or perhaps they are something more... significant? Who can say? (Spoiler alert, it's me. I can say, but I'm not gonna.)**

 **But of course the most important thing to happen in this chapter is the beginning of Pyrrha-chan's quest to claim Jaune-senpai's heart for herself!**

 **Kidding.**

 **Or am I...?**

 **If you like this story then feel free to follow and favorite it if you haven't already. If you know anyone who's into RWBY, RWBY fanfictions, Age of Sigmar, or you think would just enjoy this fic, then feel free to share it with them! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions then feel free to leave a review or PM me! (or both!) I love you all.**

 **BYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**HEEEELLLLOOOOOOO!**

 **What's this? Two uploads roughly within a week of each other? It's a miracle! Truly the gods smile down upon us all!**

 **I like to think that I'm actually starting to get better at sitting down and writing most days. While I don't always make a ton of headway on whatever I'm working on, be it my original story or one of my fanfics, or whatever one shot/crack fic that has decided to invade my mind, that I'm making headway at all is a definite boon.**

 **In this chapter classes begin! How will things go for our intrepid hero and his, ah... merry(?) teammates, who totally don't have any interpersonal conflicts or plots to murder everyone at Beacon _at all_.**

 **Nope, not even a bit. Totally 100% functional team.**

 **Well with that lie out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Ruby knew trauma. Not from personal experience, but what she could remember of her father's condition after her mother had died and what Yang had told her. He'd more or less shut down as a person. Yang had had to take care of them for awhile until he'd gathered himself enough to take care of them and make up for lost time. That had been a long time ago, but Ruby could still remember the look of profound loss and pain on his face, a look that sometimes still overcame him.

Jaune had worn that same look on his face, but with fear mixed in. Ruby still didn't know much about Jaune, and she couldn't help but wonder at what he must have suffered through to give him such a look at such a young age. She wondered if he even knew himself. She couldn't even imagine what it must be like to be missing most of your memory, to suffer through half recalled nightmares of your past.

"Are you alright?"

Ruby jumped a bit as Jaune's shoulder bumped against her. Well, his bicep really. Their height difference was enough that he was a bit more than heads and shoulders over her. "I'm alright," she said, "just thinking."

Jaune looked better now than he had before his shower. He seemed unconcerned and unbothered, and if Ruby hadn't seen it for herself she wouldn't have believed he had more resembled a scared animal than a person this morning. "Glimmer- lien for your thoughts?"

"Glimmer?" she asked, thoroughly confused.

"Slip of the tongue," he responded, slightly sheepish. "Don't worry about it."

"Oookay, well I was just thinking about... our classes today."

Jaune stared at her for a few moments, and she could tell that he didn't buy it, but he took the lifeline for what it was. "Well, I for one am curious. I don't even know what classes we'll be having, if someone could fill me in?"

"Our first class of the day will be History with Professor Oobleck," Weiss said as they walked. "After that is combat classes with Professor Goodwitch, lunch, then biology with Professor Peach. Our final class of the day will be Grimm studies with Professor Port, which will end at four o'clock. After that we will have the day to ourselves to do what we like, although we will have to put aside time for homework." Weiss looked sidelong at their team leader. "A lot of our free time is going to be spent on you. We're going to have to get you into shape physically, and we are going to have to fill the gaps in your memories."

Ruby frowned. Since when did Weiss get to decide what they were going to do with their free time? Sure homework was important, and Jaune would need some help, but it wasn't like he was incompetent. He'd led them through the Emerald Forest after all. Before she could say anything in his defense, Jaune spoke up.

"You're absolutely right, Weiss," he said, shocking Ruby. "It will be a heavy work load, and I am aware that much of that work load will be helping me, but I'm sure we can manage."

Weiss beamed with self satisfaction. "I'm glad you see things my way." Her eyes slid from Jaune to Ruby, and her smile went from satisfied to smug.

Wait, was she doing this to _spite_ her?

"Of course we'll need to make time for team exercises too, and partner drills."

Weiss's smile became less smug and more rigid, like a hard enough blow might shatter it. "Partner... drills?"

"Of course," He said calmly. "If we're going to work together as a team we're going to have to learn to work together as partners. That means you and Ruby, and Cinder and I, will train with one another, learning each other's strengths, weaknesses, and how we can complement them. We'll train as a team too of course, but for now I want to focus on each pair of partners."

"I know that not all of us get along, but like it or not, we are a team now, and as the leader I intend to see us come together as one." His tone made it clear he would not allow any argument with him on this matter.

Not for the first time, and almost certainly not for the last time, it struck Ruby just how _odd_ Jaune was. He seemingly came from nowhere, waking up in the Emerald Forest with amnesia right in the middle of initiation, his body too weak and frail to be that of a Huntsman, but he assumed command of them as though it was simply natural that he lead, and the only one who'd really complained was Weiss. Even then she hadn't protested as hard as she would have if it had been Ruby who'd tried to lead them.

Ruby almost laughed at the thought of herself leading. She was good at a lot of things, but leading just wasn't one of them. Heck, it had taken her two days just to make one friend, and in that time she'd also managed to make an enemy, who was now on a team with her for the next four years of her life. And wasn't that ironic?

As far as Ruby was concerned Jaune was the best choice to lead them, hands down.

* * *

Being mortal again had come as a complete system shock for Jaune. Everything felt reduced, like he was less than half the being he'd used to be. It was an accurate analogy, as Jaune's physical form _was_ reduced. His strength, endurance, and dexterity now were nothing compared to his Stormcast body. He was fortunate that his mind retained its alacrity and his many hundreds of years of experience. That at least would help somewhat in bridging the considerable gap between himself and his peers, but all the experience in the world would mean little if he lacked a body capable of taking advantage of that knowledge. And even then all that knowledge related almost solely to fighting. Remnant's various cultures, customs, religions, and politics were still a mystery to him, one that he would have to unravel over time. Meanwhile he would have to work on getting in shape and re-learn how to be human and the various requirements that entailed.

For example, eating regularly. Stormcast did eat, however they did not have to eat as regularly as mortals. Or sleep for that matter. Jaune had in the past gone whole days without eating or sleeping because he became too wrapped up in things or was on campaign. Stormcast still had their limits and at a certain point they would _have_ to stop for rest and food, or they'd wind up dropping from exhaustion like any mortal man or woman. It would just take a whole lot longer for a Stormcast.

Now however Jaune's stomach was loudly and angrily demanding food, and he was of a mind to indulge it.

The sheer amount of food available at the Beacon cafeteria was frankly astounding. Every aspect of the food pyramid was present and accounted for, and there was enough material here to make a _literal_ food pyramid so large that it would make Nagash and his black pyramids self conscious.

His stomach rumbled impatiently as he placed a cut of sausage on his plate, thought about it, and placed three more links to join it. His plate was piled high with food and it was starting to get difficult to carry, so he took that as a sign that he had enough. Ruby was in front of him still putting food on her plate, and Weiss and Cinder had already filled their plate and gone to find seats. The crimsonette didn't have nearly as much as he did and seemed to be favoring a more balanced breakfast.

That is, until she reached sweets. One cookie became two, then three, and Jaune stepped in before it could become four.

"Think you have enough?" he asked as she reached for the fourth cookie. Ruby jumped a bit and retracted her hand.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, "I just really like sweet things."

"I can see that," he chuckled. He scanned the buffet line and nodded his head to the fruit section. "Why not hold off on that extra cookie and grab some strawberries instead? They're your favorite."

Ruby looked further down and visibly brightened when she saw the bright red fruit for herself. "Ooh, I didn't see... those..." she looked back at Jaune curiously. "How'd you know strawberries were my favorite?"

... Huh.

How _did_ he know that?

* * *

This was certainly surreal, Cinder decided as she munched thoughtfully in her muffin. Here she was, a servant of Salem who was duty bound to destroy Beacon and to take the Maiden's power that was hers by right... and she was surrounded by children.

Her plans were still in motion, but that didn't make her current situation any less aggravating. The blonde, Yang, and the ginger, Nora, were chattering incessantly at one another and generally making enough noise for everyone else at the table. The Champion Pyrrha was trying to follow their conversation, and failing miserably if the confusion on her face was any indicator, while Ren simply ate and tuned them out, a skill undoubtedly honed by years of application. Emerald looked like she was trying and failing to follow Ren's example, Mercury was on his scroll, and Neo was happily munching away at her breakfast. Cinder was almost shocked by how much the small mute could put away. Blake was reading a book, something about a man with two souls if the unimaginative title, _"The Man With Two Souls"_ , was anything to go by, and Weiss sat next to the Fall Maiden straight backed with her elbows off of the table, quietly eating her food, the picture of etiquette. Jaune and Ruby were still in line getting their breakfast.

Not for the first time Cinder reflected on how weird her team was. What should be a cohesive team under her command was instead a hodgepodge of a spy, an heiress, a little girl, and a scrawny amnesiac. Things... certainly could have been better.

As she was rambling Yang glanced up from Nora and waved her hand. "Over here guys!" As if Ruby and Jaune would somehow miss them all.

"Hiiiiii!" Ruby cried as she slid into the open space beside Cinder, turning the criminal mastermind into a barricade between herself and her partner. With a nearly inaudible sigh Jaune sat beside Weiss.

"Good morning everyone," he said with a smile.

"Good morning!" Pyrrha all but sang as her eyes lit up upon seeing him. "How did you sleep?"

There was a minuscule pause before he answered, so short that she was almost sure no one but her noticed it, but she did feel Ruby tense slightly beside her. "I slept well," he responded, his voice just a bit too calm, "and you?"

"Quite well," she said cheerily.

Cinder watched the exchange, and the look on Pyrrha's face, with interest. Her gaze on Jaune was nearly unwavering, bright and eager. Did she have a crush on the boy? Surely not so soon after first meeting him, and certainly not on _him_? But that look in her eye... Cinder filed the information away for later. You never knew what might come in handy.

"How are things in your teams?" Jaune asked Ren and Yang, his fellow leaders.

The blonde girl gave a thumbs up, "sho far sho good," she said through a mouthful of food. Cinder didn't need to look at Weiss to know she was staring at Yang in disgust. After swallowing whatever she'd been eating, Yang continued. "I think we're all getting along pretty well, right girls?"

"Indeed!" Pyrrha said with a grin.

"Mhm," Blake grunted noncommittally as she continued to read. Neo...

Wait, where was Neo? She'd been sitting next to the champion girl.

"Uh, hello again?" Jaune said uncertainly. Cinder looked over at him and sighed heavily. Neo had her arms thrown over his shoulders, one wrapped loosely about his chest, her other holding his fork with a piece of sausage impaled on it up to his lips. "I assure you, I can feed myse- ermph."

Neo took the opportunity he'd unwittingly given her to stuff the fork in his mouth. This time the amnesiac's response was more pronounced. His eyes widened and Cinder was pretty sure his cheeks reddened, presumably from embarrassment.

The thief pulled the fork out of his mouth and Jaune grudgingly chewed and swallowed the sausage. He stared at Neo over his shoulder for a moment. "You realize, of course, that this means war."

She nodded, though the thought didn't seem to bother her any if the sultry smile on her face was any indicator. With a weary sigh Jaune opened his mouth and raised an eyebrow at her as though to say, _"well? I'm waiting."_

Cinder pretended she didn't notice Ruby blushing furiously red beside her, or how Pyrrha had a white knuckled grip on her utensils. Yang and Mercury both were staring wide eyed with eager grins, chins resting on their hands as they waited to see what would happen next. Nora was likewise enraptured, though being far more vocal about her interest, Weiss was trying to pretend she wasn't staring, and Ren and Emerald were staring incredulously, one eyebrow raised in silent judgement of what they were seeing.

Neo speared another piece of sausage and brought it up to Jaune's lips-

Only for him to snatch the fork out of her hand and push it into her mouth.

Neo blinked in surprise and looked at the fork in her mouth, then at Jaune. "I told you this would be a war," he said, a faint curl to his lips.

She considered this for a moment, then swallowed her own piece of sausage. With a mischievous grin she pecked him on the cheek and skipped back to her seat next to Pyrrha. Cinder's lips curled in a faint smile. It seemed Neo had found herself a plaything. Hopefully she wouldn't break him too quickly.

Jaune pointedly took a napkin and wiped his cheek with it, pretending not to notice Neo sticking her tongue out at him petulantly. "And you, Ren? How are things on team Lemon?"

"Well enough," he said neutrally. "Although one of us needs to remember that not everyone is as used to her late night antics as I am, and some people may have found it hard to sleep last night." Ren didn't name anyone in particular, but he didn't need to. All eyes were on Nora. Come to think of it, Emerald and Mercury had both seemed a bit ragged this morning before they had gotten some coffee in their system.

"What about yours?" Ren asked.

"There's a few kinks that need to be worked out," he said as he scooped up grits in his spoon, "but I'm sure we're going to figure ourselves out soon enough." He said it neutrally enough, but Cinder remembered his words when they had all been coming to breakfast. She squashed her burgeoning agitation. He seemed hell bent on getting them into fighting shape. Well, better that she not be a detriment to that goal then. The sooner he felt like they were an actual team the sooner Cinder wouldn't have to worry about him butting into her business.

* * *

Jaune was trying his best to follow what the green haired man was saying.

Really, he was!

He was just talking so Sigmar damned _fast._

Jaune's pencil all but flew across the paper as he scribbled down what Professor, er, _Doctor_ Oobleck was saying. The subject was obviously one he wasn't familiar with, but then that was hardly shocking. The topic they were covering on their first day had to do with the events leading up to the faunus revolts.

Faunus...

People who were born with certain animal characteristics. They didn't exist in the Mortal Realms, or at least if they did Jaune had never heard of or met any. The only thing in the realms that compared in any way were the Beastmen, the twisted children of Chaos, part man and part animal. However that was an ugly and unfair comparison to the faunus.

Or was it...

Without initially realizing he'd done it, then not caring he had when he realized what he was doing, Jaune's notes and thoughts began to deviate from the lesson to his own musings.

 _Fact: Beastmen are the children of Chaos. They can be created through procreation between a male and female beastman, an abandoned mutant child, or a full grown human transforming from Chaotic influence._

 _Theoretical: Are faunus a strand of Beastmen?_

 _Doubtful. Beastmen are known to be extremely hostile towards all other races. They would not mingle with humans willingly, nor humans with them unless they were twisted by the Ruinous Powers. While there are faunus who are adverse to humanity this is likely due to the harsh treatment of faunus throughout the history of Remnant, rather than the hand of Chaos. However it should be noted that Chaos has used such sentiments in other organizations to infiltrate them and twist them to more nefarious ends. A kind of more 'generic' mutant then? Potentially. Cannot be confirmed as fact without more information. Should be noted however that faunus mutation, if indeed it is mutation, seems purely biological._

 _Fact. Daemons exist in Remnant. Known as 'Grimm' to the people of Remnant, the chaos entities seem to take on the guise of animals, albeit on a much larger scale with various bone spikes and plates as natural armor. They are just as numerous and vicious as 'regular' daemons, however there are many notable differences between Grimm and daemons. Daemons require rituals to be summoned into the material, and a continuous flow of chaotic energy, usually in the form of mass sacrifices or other kinds of vast bloodshed such as battle, is needed to keep a Daemon in the material for any extended period of time. Grimm however do not seem to require this to remain in the material upon Remnant. According to all known information on Grimm they exist all across Remnant, a constant threat to humanity's existence. They are drawn to negativity, and supposedly feed off of it. This may go some way to explain how the Grimm continue to exist, but it is doubtful that the population of Remnant could create enough negative emotions to feed all the Grimm in existence unless they were in a constant state of fear or panic, which does not seem to be the case._

Jaune frowned and scratched out the word _fact_ at the beginning of this new musing and wrote _theoretical_ above it.

 _It is more likely that Grimm are some kind of daemonhost or mutated animals, but this does not explain why their bodies dissipate into nothing when they are felled in the same manner as daemons. It is also important to note that what little I have seen of Remnant thus far lacks chaotic corruption, at least to my eye. I am no Witch Hunter, and do not possess their ability to sniff out the taint of Chaos wherever it is hidden, but the Grimm have existed on Remnant as far back as history goes. Such long exposure to chaotic beings should have twisted the flora and fauna, but insofar as I can ascertain nature upon Remnant seems normal, untainted._

 _Perhaps-_

Out of nowhere a loud ringing echoed through the classroom. Jaune's head snapped up as he was yanked out of his thoughts.

"Well children that is all for today," the doctor said as other students snapped out of a note taking fugue and looked around as though trying to recall where they were. "Make sure you go over your notes this evening, as you will be quizzed on the material we have covered today. Mr. Oathblade, good note taking. Mrs. Rose, please try to pay more attention next time."

Jaune looked at his notes, then at Ruby's. About half way through they devolved into his own ruminations. Sigmar alone knew how much information he'd missed. As for Ruby, she'd made it maybe a quarter of the way before her 'notes' turned into scribbles and drawings. There was a crude drawing of a man with an over sized tie and glasses and a mass of unruly hair atop his head, almost certainly Doctor Oobleck, with a speech bubble next to his comically large mouth going, 'blah blah blah'. There was another image of a girl in a dress with slanted angry eyes and over sized fangs hanging out of her mouth. She had a side pony tail and the word 'MEANIE' written next to her in big capital letters. Jaune was willing to bet the remnants of his soul that it was Weiss.

The last one took him a bit to piece together. It was a girl in a dress with a large scythe, undoubtedly Ruby, next to a man with a two handed sword, himself, he realized, smiling and laughing with dead Grimm strewn about them with cartoonish xs over their eyes, a near universal sign of death.

Jaune tried to pretend his heart wasn't melting in his chest. Had he not seen it himself he would have never believed this little girl was the same one who'd carved her way through Grimm with a scythe longer than she was tall yesterday.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly when she noticed him staring at her notes.

Jaune tried to give her a stern glare, failed miserably, sighed, and patted her on the head. "Just pay more attention next time, alright?" He was fully aware of the hypocrisy of his words, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"I will!" She said brightly, and Jaune had faith that she would.

* * *

Combat class.

At least this was something he had an intimate understanding of. No more second guessing himself, no more wondering what the hell people were talking about. Just him, his blades, and the task he had existed to perform for centuries.

Though his lacking physicality left him worried. All the experience in the world meant little if he was too physically weak to put it to good use.

"As huntsmen and huntresses, our primary duty is to combat the Grimm," the fairly stunning blonde woman in front of the class stated as her calm green gaze swept over the class. He'd seen her before, during the team naming ceremony, standing behind Ozpin. From what Jaune had heard she was the deputy headmistress of Beacon, and thus in charge of enforcing discipline in the school.

Maybe that was why a riding crop was her weapon of choice?

Jaune idly noted that she was stunningly beautiful as he listened to her detail what was expected of them in combat class. If he was about ten years older... well, physically that was...

He grinned to himself. _"If I was ten years older she'd probably still shoot me down. She doesn't strike me as the type to put up with much."_

"However, we as hunters must also combat more mundane threats. The Grimm are not the only threat on Remnant. There are those among our fellow humans and faunus who choose a life of crime and banditry. And there are those among their number that are as capable as huntsmen, those of our number who have gone rouge, or individuals who have lived their entire lives in the wilds and have survived, becoming dangerous men and women. We must be ready to combat these threats, and the goal of combat class is to prepare you for this. By battling your fellow huntsmen and huntresses in training you will be better prepared to fight any threat that comes your way, be they human, Faunus, or Grimm." Her gaze scanned across the crowd. "For your first class, we will be doing one on one duels. You will get to choose your opponents today, but other times combats will be randomly determined, or I will choose the contestants." Her green eyes, and they were very pretty eyes, scanned the room. "So, who will be first?"

"I will."

Jaune's eyes tracked across the room until they rested on a tall boy in partial armor, with a mace slung over one shoulder.

 _"It's no Starsoul mace, but I bet getting hit with that thing would leave a mark."_ Jaune thought as the boy, Cardin, if he recalled correctly, walked down the aisle between the seats into the ring at the center of the room. He bled arrogance from every pore of his being, and Jaune immediately disliked him. "Someone needs to get knocked down a peg," the Stormcast muttered to Yang, who was sitting beside him, "or three."

"Tell me about it," his fellow blonde agreed as she eyed him. "You want him? Cause I was thinking about taking him myself."

Jaune grinned. "He's all yours."

Before Yang could stand however Cardin's mace swept out and pointed at them. "I'll take the pipsqueak."

For a moment Jaune thought Cardin meant him, and was about to get out of his seat.

Then Ruby let out a squeak beside him.

Jaune looked at the young girl as she stood up stiffly and walked onto the stage, her back as straight as though there was an iron rail in it.

"What wrong with her?" Oxford's leader asked Typhoon's leader.

Yang gulped. "Rubes uh... isn't great in the public eye. Or in one on one social situations most of the time. In fact, she tries to avoid socializing as much as possible, usually."

"She seemed fine in the Emerald Forest."

"Yeah, because she was in her element then and had other things to worry about, like finding the relics and not getting eaten by Grimm. Here she doesn't have any of those distractions."

And on top of that she was on stage with several dozens of her peers watching her, having been called out by the largest and most physically intimidating person in the room... oh dear.

"That bastard," Yang growled as she got to her feet. Jaune swore he saw her eyes flash red for a brief instant. "I know his type. He's a bully, likes to pick on people he sees as weak marks. He just wants an easy win to make him look good. Well I'll take Ruby's place and show him not to mess with my baby sis-"

"We can't do that," Jaune interrupted hurriedly in an attempt to derail her. "You can't fight all of Ruby's battles for her. She's here to become a warrior after all, and she can't do that if she isn't allowed to grow. Even if she loses, she'll learn from the experience and become all the stronger for it. And if Cardin tries to humiliate her? Well, I won't say anything if you decide to corner him in a lonely hallway and teach him some manners."

That seemed to calm Yang, at least a bit. "So we just sit here and do nothing?"

He grinned. "Hardly. We can cheer her on, show her she's not alone. Just because you can't fight her battles for her doesn't mean you can't have her back."

Yang grinned at him. "I like the way you think." The brawler turned to her teammates. "Alright ladies, you heard him! On your feet, I want to hear all of you screaming at the top of your lungs for my baby sis! Except you Neo, you get a pass. However you are still to express as much excitement as possible."

Jaune turned to his own remaining teammates. Neither Weiss or Cinder seemed particularly willing to cheer their teammate. "You should encourage her," Jaune said kindly to Weiss. "I know you two have your differences, but you're partners. You've got to have one another's backs."

"Its unseemly to leap up and down and wail like a banshee," Weiss said dryly as Yang did just that beside him, as though driving the heiress's point home.

"All I'm asking is a show of solidarity from both of you for a teammate, nothing more."

Weiss thought about it, then sighed and stood. "I suppose that I should at least encourage her."

Jaune's eyes slid past her to Cinder, who was still sitting down. He raised an eyebrow at her. She raised one back. Then she too sighed and stood. "I'm not exactly a fan of Winchester anyway."

"BREAK HIS LEGS!" howled a voice behind Jaune, who nearly soared a foot in the air and turned to see what unearthly abomination had made such a roar.

It was Nora, as it turned out, so his initial assumption of a terrifying monster was pretty close to the mark. She had one arm locked around Ren's neck, who was taking the physical abuse with the laissez-faire attitude of one used to such. "Go team," he said wryly as he shook a fist halfheartedly, then adjusted himself in Nora's headlock so he could breathe. Mercury was leaning back in his seat with his legs slung over the head rest of the one in front of him and clapping, a lazy smile on his face. Emerald was trying to dodge Nora's other arm. She failed, and met with the same fate as Ren.

His eyes traveled to team Typhoon. Yang was, predictably, the loudest person present as she urged her sister on to greater and more ridiculous acts of physical violence to perform on Cardin, and was leaping up and down. She was, for obvious and bouncy reasons, drawing the attention of many of the male students in the room. Pyrhha was cheering and clapping beside her, but restrained herself to bouncing up and down lightly on her heels and simply encouraging Ruby to do the best she could. Blake and Neo were saying nothing, but both were clapping and were wearing what Jaune considered to be genuine smiles. Jaune could tell that Ruby had far more support in her ring than Cardin did, whose primary supporters seemed to be his own team with the occasional encouragement here and there.

The Stormcast turned student could also tell that none of it was getting through to Ruby, who was standing still on the edge of the ring, as though paralyzed.

* * *

Ruby felt every eye in the room on her.

And no, that _wasn't_ an exaggeration. Everyone was looking at her. Professor Goodwitch, her teammates, Yang's team, all of the other students, _everyone._

She shouldn't be here. And no, she didn't just mean this stage. She shouldn't be _here,_ at Beacon. Everyone else had at least two years of experience on her, more training, and were bigger. Heck, even Jaune belonged here more than she did!

She'd never wanted this kind of attention. She'd always just wanted to be like any other huntress in training with normal knees. She'd only agreed to come to Beacon because she'd been swept up in the moment and hadn't even thought about saying no! She hadn't realized it would mean leaving everyone she knew behind except for her older sister, who wasn't even on the same team as her now!

 _"I don't belong here, I don't want to be here. I wanna be back at Signal with the people I know. I wanna be home with dad and Zwei and training with Uncle Qrow. I wanna be that girl that watches videos of kittens all day on the internet. I wanna-"_

"Ruby."

Maybe it was because it was her name, maybe it was because it was stated instead of shouted, or maybe it was because of the note of of calm serenity in the voice, but that one word cut through Yang's shouts and the maelstrom in her own mind. She turned to look behind her.

Jaune was leaning on the partition separating the seats from the ring, a kind smile on his face. His unnaturally bright cobalt eyes were serene, relaxed. "You've got this." He said it as though it was a statement as obvious and factual as telling someone that the sun rose in the east.

"There's so many people," she whispered, almost whimpered, to her shame. "They're all older, stronger. _He's_ stronger than me."

Jaune did the most unexpected thing. He laughed.

"No he isn't. He's an arrogant braggart. He thinks that you're an easy win because you're smaller and younger than him. I've seen you fight, I _know_ what you can do. I know Cardin Winchester doesn't stand a chance in hell against you." He reached across the barricade and tapped her on the forehead. "But you've got to be in the right mindset. Right now your worst enemy is yourself. You're letting your doubts and your fears take control. If you fight him like this Cardin's going to win because you've let him win."

"You belong here Ruby. You belong on this team. Look, they're all cheering for you, even Weiss. They've got your back. _I've_ got your back."

The crimsonette's eyes slid past him, and she saw that he was right. They _were_ all cheering for her, even the people not on her team. Her eyes settled on Weiss, who was standing demurely and clapping. The heiress's eyes met hers, and to Ruby's shock the white haired girl smiled.

"You good?" Jaune asked.

Ruby swallowed, nodded, and tightened her grip on Crescent Rose. The comforting feeling of her signature weapon, crafted by her own hands and as much a part of her as her own heart, helped steady her further. "I'm good."

He grinned widely at her. "Good! Now go win this for team Oxford and for yourself."

Ruby turned back to the ring as Jaune returned to his seat. She took a step, then another, until she was in the center of the ring facing her opponent with Goodwitch standing between them.

"Are you ready, Mrs. Rose?" The professor asked.

Ruby looked past her to Cardin. Her opponent's face was twisted in a derisive sneer, his mace slung lazily over his shoulder.

 _"You belong here. You belong on this team."_

Ruby brought Crescent Rose up into position. "I was born ready."

* * *

Yang watched Jaune return to his seat beside her. "What'd you say to her?"

Her fellow blonde leaned back in his seat and grinned. "Just what she needed to hear."

Yang couldn't help but be impressed. "You've got a knack for this leadership thing. Usually when Ruby gets like that it takes moving heaven and earth to snap her out of it. Have you led a team before?"

He shrugged and tapped his head. "I wouldn't know." Yang winced. It was hard to remember that he had amnesia when he acted so normal. Then, Yang hadn't ever met anyone with amnesia before, so she didn't exactly have a basis for how they might normally act.

"Begin!"

Yang's attention was yanked back to the ring as Glynda's cry rang out.

Cardin made the first move. He darted forward and brought his mace down in a devastating two handed arc. Ruby darted back before it could connect and the mace slammed into the concrete floor with enough force to crack it. Cardin charged forward again and swung again, now in an upward arc. This time Ruby didn't dodge, but actually leapt up and _into_ the swing, bringing Crescent Rose up to shield her from the impact. She was sent sailing into the air, but not out of control.

Yang knew what her sister was up to and grinned. Ruby wasn't a grand strategist, but she was quick and adaptable, changing tactics on the fly to respond to the situation at hand. She knew she couldn't overpower her opponent...

So she'd use his power against him.

As Ruby's ascension reached its apex Crescent Rose shifted to its rifle form, and she hammered Cardin with large caliber rounds. The larger boy staggered back under the barrage as his aura dropped rapidly, and his mace drooped for just a couple seconds.

It was all the crimsonette needed.

Ruby shifted her weapon into its scythe form, but the blade extended until its curved blade was pointing ahead like a glaive, and with the power of her semblance she shot down to the ground spinning like a top, the tip of her weapon held out before her and aimed right at Cardin.

Yang and Jaune jumped to their feet with wild yells as Ruby's strike slammed home. Cardin was driven to the ground and sent skidding across the arena as Yang's little sister kicked off of him and landed nimbly on her feet.

"The match is over!" Glynda called, "Ruby Rose is the winner!"

Yang looked at the board displaying the aura of the contestants. Cardin's was in the red. Ruby hadn't lost so much as a sliver of her aura.

"Did you see that?!" Ruby squealed as she rushed towards her sister.

Yang's face was split in a huge grin. "I sure did! Come here and give your big sis- eh?"

Ruby, as it turned out, wasn't running to Yang. She darted right past her.

And leapt into Jaune's arms, who caught her.

"I sure did!" He laughed. "That was amazing Ruby! I knew you'd win, but by Sigendil, that was masterfully done!" He released her and she let go of his neck, sliding down to the floor as she talked animatedly. The others were congratulating her on her victory, and even Weiss seemed impressed by Ruby's performance.

But Yang wasn't focused on any of that.

Jaune still had an arm around Ruby's shoulders, like it belonged there or something. It was one thing for Rubes to get all grabby. It was another for a boy to be like that with her sister.

Yang's eyes narrowed. She'd have to get him alone some time soon and have a talk about boundaries and the consequences of crossing them.

* * *

 **Oh dear, looks like Yang might be about to go full big sister on Jaune to protect her little rubaby. Or is that just jealousy from Ruby showing off her success to someone other than her older sister? We'll see...**

 **And Jaune's got it bad, bad, bad. He's hot for teacher!**

 **Seriously though, it does make sense that Jaune would be at least a bit drawn to Professor Goodwitch. She's a grown and mature woman with a take no shit attitude and a rockin bod to boot. What's not to like? Also it's hardly unusual to be attracted to an older woman.**

 **Or would it be a younger woman in this case? hmmm...**

 **While we know Ruby is an exceptional fighter we see in the first season that she really does have difficulty with social situations, so I felt like her freaking out when she was called out my one of the most physically imposing people in their year in front of quite literally her entire class and a teacher made sense for the character. I actually drew inspiration from the RWBY manga by Shirow Miwa for the scene, though obviously I made some adjustments to fit the story.**

 **And here we see even Weiss starting to behave at least a bit cordially towards Ruby. They're hardly best friends by this point, but even in volume 1 Weiss wasn't a complete Ice Queen, though it took her some time to actually open up.**

 **Cinder, of course, is just playing along and hoping that will be enough to satisfy her team leader. Will it be though? We'll have to wait and see (spoilers: I wouldn't bet on it).**

 **GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:**

 **Glimmer: also known as glimmer rings, glimmer is a form of currency used in Excelsis, the city of secrets (at least I'm pretty sure that's right, I couldn't actually find any references online to confirm one way or the other, so if I'm incorrect someone feel free to correct me). Glimmer is quite literally the raw stuff of prophecy, and can be used to learn information about the** **future. Usually any information learned is minor things, but the Collegiate Arcane, the college of mages, has a permanent presence in the city mining the Spear of Malus, a shard of the old world from which Glimmer is derived. There are people in excelsis who become addicted to prophecy, becoming Glimmer addicts who use up every shred of prophecy they get their hands on in hopes that the information they learn will help them break free of the squalid conditions they live in. The sad truth is that few Glimmer addicts ever learn anything of use, and if they were to sell the Glimmer Rings they hoarded instead of using them they'd stand a far better chance of getting out of the slums.**

 **Nagash's Black Pyramids: In a time before the eight worlds existed, the god of death Nagash, who at the time was a Necromancer, albeit a powerful one, but no god, built a massive black pyramid to act as a channel for his powers, threatening to make him the most powerful being in the world. He was stopped fortunately, and in time the Black Pyramid was destroyed. However in the eight Realms Nagash gathered armies upon armies of undead servants to build multiple Black Pyramids in Shyish, the realm of death, out of the black sand, the very stuff of death, found at the edge of the realm. When his great work was completed Nagash enacted his master plan, the necroquake, to awaken the dead across all the realms and secure Nagash's dominion over all the realms. However the very foes that foiled him so long ago foiled him again, and the Necroquake would have unexpected side affects for the realms as a whole.**

 **Witch Hunters: the name is pretty self explanatory to be honest. They hunt witches. More to the point they hunt down chaos cults that attempt to infiltrate the free cities, renegade mages, necromancers, and other such entities that seek to infiltrate society. Where the Stormcast and the Freeguild and their many allies are the hammer of Sigmar that crashes down on the enemy, Witch Hunters are more specialized tools that focus more on investigation and countering infiltration. Though anyone who thinks a Witch Hunter is not a deadly opponent is only inviting their own end by underestimating such dangerous men and women. Witch Hunters will go to nearly any length to find and capture or kill their quarry.**

 **Starsoul Mace: as the name implies, these weapons are mighty tools of destruction even when compared to the weapons of the Stormcast. Carried by the Paladin Brotherhoods, Starsoul Maces strike with enough force to vaporize foes in a single swing. Even the mightiest foes of the Stormcast should fear the touch of these weapons.**

 **If you like this story so far feel free to follow and favorite it! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to leave a review or PM me! If you have a friend that likes RWBY or RWBY fanfics, Warhammer or Warhammer fanfics, or you just think this story would interest them, feel free to share it with them! I love you all. BBBBYYYYEEEEEEEEE!**


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